LIBRARY 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

SANTA  BARBARA 


PRESENTED  BY 
ALICE  SCHOTT 


W.  B.  WILSON 

AND  THE  DEPARTMENT  OF  LABOR 


W.  B.  WILSON 

The  First.  Secretary  of  Lalx>r 


W.  B.  WILSON 

And  the  Department  of  Labor 

BY 

ROGER  W.  BABSON 


NEW    YORK 

BRENTANO'S 
1919 


C,K\ 


COPYRIGHTED,  1919, 
By  ROGER  W.   BABSON 


All  rights  reserved 


''There  is  one  part  of  man  in  which  he  is  able  to 
read  himself.  A  man  may  not  be  able  to  gauge  his 
ability ;  he  may  not  be  able  to  compare  his  own  capac- 
ity with  that  of  his  neighbors ;  but  he  can,  far  better 
than  his  neighbors,  gauge  his  own  motives.  I  know 
that  at  least  my  motives  have  been  to  bring  happiness 
to  mankind  by  placing  all  on  a  basis  of  equality  as 
far  as  physical  environments  will  permit  of  that 
equality. ' ' 

W.  B.  WILSON. 


PREFACE 

THERE  are  many  persons  to  whom  the  author  is 
much  indebted  for  material  in  this  story.  Among 
them  should  be  mentioned  Secretary  Wilson's  friends 
and  neighbors  in  Arnot  and  Blossburg,  Pennsylvania, 
with  whom  I  spent  some  of  the  most  delightful  hours 
of  my  life ;  also  those  loyal  and  efficient  co-workers  of 
the  Secretary,  Assistant  Secretary  Louis  F.  Post, 
Chief  Clerk  Samuel  Gompers,  Jr.,  Solicitor  John  W. 
Abercrombie,  and  Mr.  Hugh  Reid,  Private  Secretary 
to  Mr.  Post. 

Although  I  refer  to  Mr.  Hugh  L.  Kerwin,  Assistant 
to  Secretary  Wilson,  later  in  the  book,  I  should  also 
here  acknowledge  my  indebtedness  to  him,  together 
with  his  associates  in  the  Secretary's  office,  namely, 
Mr.  Edward  S.  McGraw,  Private  Secretary  to  Secre- 
tary Wilson,  and  Mr.  Jesse  C.  Watts,  Confidential 
Clerk,  and  Mr.  Ralph  H.  Horner. 

Portions  of  the  Secretary's  Annual  Reports  I  have 
used  copiously  without  quotation  marks  in  the  last 
few  chapters,  and  for  a  few  stories  I  am  indebted  to 
newspaper  writers.  Therefore,  if  any  reader  recog- 
nizes something  of  his  own,  may  he  please  accept  this 
as  an  acknowledgment  ? 

Finally,  let  me  acknowledge  my  indebtedness  to 
every  member  of  the  Department  of  Labor  who  served 
during  1917,  1918,  and  1919.  Every  one,  among 
officials,  heads  of  bureaus  and  services,  clerks,  elevator 
men  and  porters,  was  exceedingly  kind  and  courteous 
to  me  in  every  way.  They  not  only  were  a  great  help 
in  this  work,  but  joined  in  giving  me  the  two  happiest 
years  of  my  life. 

B.  W.  B. 


FOREWORD 

By  JOHN  HAYS  HAMMOND 

AMONG  the  many  beneficent  measures  signed  by 
President  Taft  none  was  more  important  than  the 
inauguration  of  the  Department  of  Labor,  the  func- 
tion of  which  is  to  improve  the  condition  of  the  great 
wage-earning  classes  of  the  nation,  and  in  achieving 
this  laudable  object  to  promote  harmonious  relations 
between  employer  and  employee.  In  this  way  only 
can  the  social  and  industrial  peace  be  established 
that  is  prerequisite  to  the  co-operative  effort  of  those 
engaged  in  the  development  of  our  great  national 
industries. 

It  was  my  privilege  to  be  able  to  contribute  some 
influence  in  securing  the  creation  of  the  Department 
of  Labor.  With  others  interested  in  the  movement 
I  believed  that  William  B.  Wilson  was  pre-eminently 
qualified  to  become  the  first  Secretary  of  the  newly 
created  Department  of  Labor. 

William  B.  Wilson  had  been  an  American  wage 
earner  from  boyhood ;  he  possessed  that  knowledge  of 
and  sympathy  with  wage  earners  which  is  an  indis- 
pensable qualification  for  the  head  of  the  department 
of  government  whose  function  is  to  safeguard  the 
interests  of  the  wage  earners  of  the  country. 

He  had  other  qualifications — a  judicial  character 
of  mind,  a  varied  experience  and  a  lifelong  and  in- 
telligent interest  in  public  affairs,  and  above  all  an 
unimpeachable  reputation  for  sterling  integrity. 


x  FOREWORD 

Having  regard  to  the  many  complex  problems  and 
the  conflicting  interests  inherent  in  the  problems  he 
has  been  called  upon  to  solve,  the  verdict  of  history 
will  be,  I  believe,  that  Secretary  Wilson  has  fully 
justified  the  confidence  reposed  in  him  by  those  who 
advocated  his  appointment  to  the  very  important 
position  of  the  first  Secretary  of  the  Department  of 
Labor  in  the  Government  of  the  United  States. 

As  a  statistician  and  an  authority  on  industrial 
problems  Mr.  Roger  W.  Babson  needs  no  introduction, 
and  he  is  specially  qualified  to  make  a  study  of  the 
Department  of  Labor  and  to  weave  into  his  record  of 
that  study  the  life  story  of  its  first  Secretary. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER 

I.  BOYHOOD  IN  SCOTLAND 

II.  His  FATHER  EMIGRATES  TO  AMERICA. 

III.  BILLY  ARRIVES  AT  CASTLE  GARDEN  . . . 

IV.  His    BOYHOOD    ENDS — JOINING    THE 

UNION 

V.  THE  COBBLER'S  SHOP 

VI.  WHAT  A  MINE  is  LIKE 

VII.  WORKING  FOR  THE  UNION 

VIII.  THE  STRIKE  OF  1899-1900 

IX.  SOMETHING  ABOUT  FARMING 

X.  BUSINESS  CYCLES 

XI.  RAILROADING  IN  IOWA 

XII.  THE  GREAT  STRIKE  OF  1902 

XIII.  RUNNING  FOR  CONGRESS 

XIV.  Six  YEARS  IN  CONGRESS 

XV.  CREATING  THE  DEPARTMENT  OF  LABOR 

XVI.  THE  ORIGINAL  BUREAUS 

XVII.  CONCILIATION  WORK 

XVIII.  PREPARING  FOR  WAR 

XIX.  DURING  THE  WAR 

XX.  COLLECTIVE  BARGAINING   

XXI.  SECRETARY  WILSON'S  POLICIES 

XXII.  WHAT  OF  THE  FUTURE?,  , 


PAOK 
1 

10 
15 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

W.  B.  WILSON,  THE  FIRST  SECRETARY  OF  LABOR 

Frontispiece 

HOME  OF  W.  B.  WILSON  DURING  MOST  OF  HIS  LIFE 
AFTER  MARRIAGE 28 

THE  KERWIN  COBBLER  SHOP 34 

WILSON  NEIGHBORS  ON  PIAZZA  OF  FARM  HOUSE 
PURCHASED  IN  1896 61 

THE  ENTRANCE  TO  THE  MINE  AT  ARNOT,  PENN- 
SYLVANIA    102 

PLAN  FOR  LABOR  ADJUSTMENT.  .  262 


W.  B.  WILSON 

AND  THE  DEPARTMENT  OF  LABOR 

CHAPTER  I 
BOYHOOD  IN  SCOTLAND 

IT  WAS  a  cold  day  in  February,  1868,  in  the  little 
town  of  Haughhead,  Scotland,  A  strike  was  on,  and 
the  "Wilson  family,  like  others,  had  been  evicted  from 
their  little  two-room  brick  house. 

But  unlike  some  of  the  others,  the  Wilsons  stayed 
by  the  door  of  their  house,  protecting  their  scanty 
furniture.  There  sat  the  mother  and  her  little  boy, 
William,  in  the  snow.  With  his  left  hand  William 
clung  to  his  mother's  apron  string  and  in  his  right 
hand  he  held  a  big  knift,  as  they  waited  for  the 
bailiff.  This  boy  was  William  B.  Wilson,  and  his 
eviction  on  that  cold  February  day  was  his  first  actual 
experience  with  the  industrial  system  and  the  condi- 
tions that  it  developed. 

Many  years  later,  when  this  day  was  being  talked 
over,  a  friend  ventured  the  remark: 

"Mr.  Secretary,  I  should  think  that  you  would 
hate  all  landlords  forevermore.  Beginning  life  with 
such  an  experience,  how  can  you  ever  feel  as  kindly 
as  you  do  toward  those  who  have  property?" 

To  this  the  Secretary  replied: 
1 


2  .W.  B.  WILSON 

"Why,  I  never  feel  the  slightest  bitterness  about 
that  day.  Of  course  I  feel  sorry  when  I  think  of  all 
my  mother  suffered,  but  it  didn't  do  me  any  harm. 
Although  only  six  years  old  I  was  a  good  healthy  kid, 
and  would  probably  have  been  out  in  the  snow  that 
day  anyway.  No,  to  tell  the  truth,  I  cannot  help 
smiling  when  I  think  how  conceited  I  was  standing 
there  with  that  big  knife  and  figuring  what  I  would 
do  to  the  bailiff  when  he  came  to  arrest  us.  Of  course 
it  was  a  pretty  sad  time  then,  but  it  seems  funny  to 
me  as  I  look  back  on  it  today." 


Fifty  years,  almost  to  a  day,  had  passed.  This 
boy  had  become  the  first  Secretary  of  Labor  for  the 
United  States  of  America.  I  had  an  appointment 
with  him  one  afternoon  in  his  private  office  on  the 
seventh  floor  of  the  big  building  on  G  Street  near 
Seventeenth  Street  in  Washington.  There  he  sat 
by  a  big  mahogany  desk,  which  was  piled  with  plans, 
specifications,  and  numerous  other  papers.  Said  I: 

"You  look  rather  tired  this  afternoon,  Mr.  Secre- 
tary. " 

"No,"  he  answered,  "I  am  not  tired,  but  I  am 
'serious,  that  is  all.  I  have  just  returned  from  the 
White  House.  The  President  has  made  me  respon- 
sible for  the  spending  of  $60,000,000,  on  the  greatest 
industrial  housing  plan  America  has  ever  even  con- 
sidered. It  is  easy  enough  to  order  houses  built,  but 
to  have  these  built  where  they  are  needed  to  relieve 
distress  and  at  the  same  time  not  to  harm  values, 
requires  great  study.  It  is  easy  enough  to  talk  about 
equal  opportunities,  but  workers  can  never  prosper 


BOYHOOD  IN  SCOTLAND  3 

by  the  destruction  of  values.     The  confiscation  of 
property  is  the  confiscation  of  opportunities." 


William  Bauchop  Wilson  was  born  on  the  second 
day  of  April,  1862.  His  mother  was  Helen  Nelson 
Bauchop  Wilson  and  his  father  was  Adam  Wilson. 
William  was  the  oldest  child.  He  had  three  sisters, 
named  Jean,  Jessie,  and  Margaret,  and  three  brothers, 
named  Joseph,  Adam,  and  James. 

One  evening  in  the  early  summer  of  1918,  when  the 
Germans  were  almost  at  the  gates  of  Paris,  I  sat  be- 
side Mr.  Wilson  at  a  dinner  at  the  Powhatan  Hotel, 
Washington.  He  was  in  one  of  his  very  quiet  moods. 
For  a  long  time  he  said  nothing  to  me  and  I  of  course 
said  nothing  to  him.  Somehow  or  other  I  felt,  yes, 
I  knew,  that  he  was  thinking  of  his  boyhood  days  and 
how  good  God  had  been  to  him.  Some  one  had  just 
sung  one  of  his  favorite  Scotch  songs.  I  noticed  that 
the  tears  came  to  his  eyes.  I  was  right  in  my  surmise 
as  to  his  thoughts,  for  when  called  upon  to  speak,  he 
began  in  this  way: 

"I  have  a  vivid  recollection  of  the  portion  of  Scot- 
land that  I  came  from,  the  valleys  of  the  Clyde  in 
the  neighborhood  of  Hamilton.  I  have  had  related 
to  me  by  my  parents  the  traditions  of  my  family  and 
of  the  country  of  my  birth.  I  feel  that  every  man 
must  have  a  love  of  the  country  of  his  birth.  I  care 
not  what  that  country  may  be,  whether  it  is  the  beau- 
tiful hills  and  valleys  of  Scotland,  the  romantic  moun- 
tains and  glens  of  Switzerland,  even  the  famous  val- 
ley of  the  Khine.  While  a  man  may  have  an  intense 
affection  for  the  land  of  his  birth,  he  has  no  business 


4  W.  B.  WILSON 

to  come  to  this  country,  live  in  it,  enjoy  its  institu- 
tions, and  partake  of  the  opportunities  of  working  out 
the  destinies  of  its  people,  unless  he  has  within  his 
bosom  a  more  intense  love  for  the  country  of  his 
adoption.  I  feel  that  intensity  of  love. 

"There  were  things  in  connection  with  the  insti- 
tutions of  the  country  I  came  from  that  made  my 
parents  leave  that  country  and  come  here.  One  of 
my  earliest  recollections  was  that  of  being  turned 
out  of  our  home,  evicted  in  midwinter,  and  finding 
shelter  in  the  stables  of  the  tollhouse  near  by.  There 
was  not  the  human  liberty,  there  was  not  the  human 
hope,  there  were  not  the  human  opportunities  exist- 
ing there  that  we  found  here  when  we  came,  and  with 
all  my  love  for  that  country,  I  have  a  greater  love 
for  this  country,  which  gives  to  every  man  the  greatest 
opportunities  for  individual  development  and  collec- 
tive enterprise  that  exist  anywhere  on  the  face  of  the 
globe. 

"Not  that  our  institutions  are  perfect;  they  are 
not;  I  am  glad  they  are  not.  If  they  were  perfect 
institutions  we  should  have  reached  the  highest  point 
possible  for  mankind.  There  would  be  no  greater 
heights  to  climb;  and  when  you  have  reached  the 
highest  possible  point,  there  is  only  one  way  in  which 
you  can  move,  and  that  is  downward.  So  I  am  glad 
that  we  have  not  reached  the  highest  point  that  it  is 
possible  for  us  to  reach,  because,  after  all,  there  is 
pleasure  in  the  vigorous  contest  for  progress  and  for 
betterment.  I  am  glad  that  my  days  have  been  laid 
at  a  period  and  in  a  country  where  there  is  oppor- 
tunity for  exercising  vigor  and  intelligence  in  mov- 
ing toward  higher  planes  with  more  splendid  ideals. 


BOYHOOD  IN  SCOTLAND  5 

''Something  has  been  said  to  you  about  this  won- 
derful organization  of  which  I  am  a  part.  I  am 
going  to  repeat  a  thought  to  yeu  that  I  have  stated 
time  and  time  again,  until  those  who  have  heard  it 
frequently  from  my  lips  may  begin  to  think  that  the 
idea  is  threadbare.  This  idea  is  that  no  great  insti- 
tution, no  great  accomplishment,  ever  comes  into  ex- 
istence as  the  result  of  the  brilliant  workings  of  any 
one  mind.  Our  institutions  are  a  growth.  They  are 
the  result  of  building  one  thought  upon  another ;  the 
accepting  of  one  idea  after  another ;  and  it  is  because 
of  the  larger  number  of  minds  that  we  now  have 
working  upon  the  problem  and  in  consequence  the 
development  of  a  greater  number  of  ideas  that  we 
are  able  to  build  more  rapidly  than  we  were  able  to 
build  before." 


William  was  an  ordinary  boy.  He  liked  to  run 
away,  he  used  to  get  cross  and  sulky ;  he  fought  with 
other  boys,  and,  like  others,  dreaded  Sundays.  Al- 
though Mr.  Wilson  has  always  been  a  very  religious 
man  and  identified  with  the  Presbyterian  Church  in 
all  its  activities,  he  has  never  become  reconciled  to 
those  Scotch  Sundays,  when  he  spent  almost  all  day 
at  the  "wee  kirk"  in  Blantyre.  Referring  once  to 
those  days,  he  said: 

' '  Those  Sundays  were  sad  days.  Why,  we  children 
hardly  dared  to  speak  above  a  whisper.  We  couldn't 
laugh  or  have  anything  to  do  with  anyone  outside  the 
family.  Everything  we  had  to  eat  was  prepared  on 
Saturday  and  was  set  before  us  stone  cold.  As  I 
think  of  the  old  church  where  we  spent  nearly  all 


6  .W.  B.  .WILSON 

day  Sundays,  I  of  course  realize  now  what  that  dis- 
cipline did  for  me  and  my  family.  Young  people 
today,  however,  who  attend  modern  churches,  can 
never  understand  what  it  meant  to  us  to  sit  for  hours 
upright  on  those  hard  benches,  listening  to  long  ser- 
mons far  beyond  our  ken." 

The  little  town  of  Blantyre,  Scotland,  where  Mr. 
Wilson  was  born,  is  located  on  the  Clyde  River,  be- 
tween Hamilton  and  Glasgow.  It  is  four  miles  from 
the  big  estates  of  the  Duke  of  Hamilton,  and  eight 
miles  from  Glasgow.  Like  many  another  boy,  he 
was  not  only  very  poor,  but  this  poverty  stood  out 
in  sharp  contrast  to  the  wealth,  luxury,  and  waste- 
fulness that  were  almost  next  door.  The  difference 
between  the  great  mansions  on  the  Duke  of  Hamil- 
ton's estates  and  the  little  two-room  house  in  which 
he  lived  made  a  lasting  impression  on  his  mind. 
There  were  children  at  the  great  house  and  they  used 
to  ride  by  William's  little  home  with  their  ponies, 
coachmen,  and  servants.  He  was  born  with  only  a 
burden  of  indebtedness,  while  they  were  born  to  great 
wealth;  but  this  fact  never  made  him  the  least  bit 
jealous.  He  would  smile  at  the  rich  children  as  they 
passed  and  they  could  not  help  smiling  at  him  in 
return. 

Like  other  kids,  he  did  not  care  much  for  school. 
He  cannot  even  remember  the  name  of  his  first  school 
teacher.  He  insists,  however,  that  he  never  really 
heard  it.  Like  some  school  teachers  nowadays,  this 
man  was  selected  not  on  account  of  his  ability,  but 
because  he  needed  the  job.  In  an  accident  while  at 
work  he  lost  all  the  fingers  of  his  right  hand,  and 
the  boys  simply  called  him  "Fingerless  Jock."  This 


BOYHOOD  IN  SCOTLAND  7 

was  sufficient  for  Bill  as  for  the  others.  Apparently 
Fingerless  Jock  didn't  teach  Bill  Wilson  anything, 
for  after  a  few  weeks  at  the  school,  he  was  withdrawn 
from  it  and  was  not  again  sent  to  school  until  the 
following  year. 

Bill's  real  education  began  when  his  parents,  at 
great  personal  sacrifice,  sent  him  to  St.  John's  Gram- 
mar School  in  Hamilton.  The  teacher  in  this  school 
Mr.  Wilson  remembers  very  well.  She  was  a  tall 
woman  with  black  curls  hanging  down  her  back.  She 
reached  him  through  the  heart  rather  than  through 
the  brain.  She  won  his  love,  and  he  couldn't  study 
hard  enough  or  do  enough  for  her.  Within  a  few 
weeks  he  had  finished  the  First  Header,  and  the 
teacher  wrote  to  his  father  that  he  was  ready  for  the 
Second.  Until  his  father  could  get  together  the 
little  money  necessary  to  buy  this  book,  Bill  studied 
from  one  of  those  at  the  school.  So  when  his  father 
finally  sent  the  Second  Eeader,  Bill  went  through  it 
without  a  break  in  a  day,  and  the  teacher  with  black 
curls  sent  word  to  his  father  that  he  was  ready  for 
the  Third  Reader. 

W.  B.  Wilson's  father  was  a  coal  miner  without  any 
education.  The  only  time  that  he  had  spent  out  of 
the  mines  was  five  years  when  he  worked  in  a  cotton 
mill  to  recover  his  health.  He  was  working  in  this 
mill  when  William  was  born.  He  began  to  wonder 
how  it  was  possible  that  the  boy  could  learn  so 
rapidly.  He  forgot  that  the  boy's  mother  was  a 
woman  of  education  who  prayed  with  her  boy  and 
helped  him  to  do  his  best.  To  the  teacher  with  the 
long  black  curls,  and  to  his  mother  who  helped  him 
at  home,  William  B.  Wilson  owes  virtually  his  en- 


8  W.  B.  WILSON 

tire  school  education.  With  the  possible  exception  of 
a  few  months'  schooling  after  he  arrived  in  America, 
the  only  schooling  that  he  ever  had  was  that  one 
year  in  Scotland. 

Certainly  this  proves  that  it  is  not  hours  of  schooling 
in  modern  structures  or  extended  curriculums  that 
are  needed  to  give  a  child  an  education.  A  teacher 
who  wins  the  heart  of  the  pupil,  with  time  and 
strength  to  give  to  that  pupil,  can,  with  the  co-opera- 
tion of  the  home,  do  in  one  year  what,  under  modern 
system,  takes  years  to  accomplish. 

At  the  time  of  the  eviction  from  the  one-story,  low- 
browed cottage  (which,  by  the  way,  was  one  of  many 
in  a  long  row  along  a  narrow  street)  there  was  a 
strike.  The  cottages  belonged  to  the  owners  of  the 
coal  mine  where  Bill's  father  worked.  Although  the 
father  had  the  means  to  pay  the  rent,  the  owner  would 
not  let  him  remain  in  the  house,  because  he  said  it 
was  needed  for  other  workers  who  wouldn't  strike. 
After  this  experience  it  is  not  surprising  that  Mr. 
Wilson  has  felt  that  corporation-owned  houses  are 
not  desirable.  As  the  only  real  distinction  between 
a  free  man  and  slave  is  the  free  man's  right  to  quit 
work,  it  is  only  logical  that  conditions  should  be  such 
that  an  honest  worker  can  quit  if  conditions  are  un- 
just. So  long  as  the  housing  facilities  of  any  com- 
munity are  owned  or  controlled  by  the  employers 
there  can  be  no  real  industrial  freedom.  Further- 
more, the  very  fact  that  the  employer  owns  the  build- 
ing makes  the  wage  earner  more  discontented  and 
more  apt  to  strike  than  if  the  houses  were  owned  by 
outsiders. 


BOYHOOD  IN  SCOTLAND  9 

Strange  to  say,  the  greatest  number  of  strikes  occur 
in  communities  where  the  houses  are  owned  by  the 
mill  owners  for  the  purpose  of  keeping  the  men  from 
striking.  The  fewest  strikes  occur  in  communities 
wh-.re  the  men  own  their  own  homes  and  are  perfectly 
free  to  strike  at  any  time  without  fear  of  eviction. 
Industrial  disturbances  are  largely  psychological. 
Strained  relations  between  employer  and  wage  earner 
usually  start  from  the  smallest  things  just  as  do 
troubles  within  a  home.  Restrictions  hedging  about 
an  industry  to  prevent  men  from  striking  are  but 
seeds  for  disorder  and  discontent.  The  best  antidote 
for  industrial  unrest  is  freedom  accompanied  by  con- 
ditions which  make  for  freedom. 

Of  the  action  of  the  mine  owners  in  Haughhead  in 
evicting  the  "Wilson  family  during  the  strike  of  1868, 
Mr.  Wilson  says: 

"My  understanding  of  the  matter  is  that  the  action 
taken  by  the  coal  company  in  this  affair  was  entirely 
within  its  rights  under  the  law.  But,  undeniably,  it 
happens  now  and  then  in  this  world  that  some  people 
have  too  many  rights  while  other  folks  possess  too 
few.  At  all  events,  it  is  not  unnatural  that,  having 
gone  through  such  experiences  as  this,  I  should  have 
started  in  life  with  an  ingrained  ambition  to  gain 
rights  for  labor  that  coal  companies  and  other  or- 
ganizations of  capital  would  be  obliged  to  respect." 


CHAPTER  II 

His  FATHER  EMIGRATES  TO  AMERICA 

THE  Wilson  family  lived  for  quite  a  while  in  the 
stable  under  the  tollhouse  at  Haughhead,  to  which 
they  had  gone  when  evicted  from  their  cottage.  When 
after  some  weeks  the  strike  was  settled,  the  father 
found  himself  facing  two  alternatives, — either  he  must 
return  to  work  at  Blantyre  and  be  unfaithful  to  the 
great  cause  for  which  he  and  his  brothers  were  fight- 
ing, namely,  for  better  conditions;  or  else  he  must 
leave  Blantyre  and  get  work  in  some  other  place.  Of 
course,  if  possible,  he  would  find  work  elsewhere  in 
Scotland,  but  the  mine  owners  were  banded  together 
and  none  of  them  would  hire  a  man  who  was  on  a 
strike  in  any  other  section.  The  father  had  nearly 
reached  the  end  of  his  resources,  unless  he  drew  upon 
the  scanty  savings  of  years.  His  wife  and  three 
children  must  have  a  place  to  sleep  and  something  to 
eat.  It  was  a  difficult  problem  to  decide. 

Many  people  have  wondered  why  it  is  that  miners 
stay  in  their  work.  I  have  been  asked  if  the  saying 
"Once  a  miner,  always  a  miner"  is  true.  As  a  rule 
this  is  true,  but  not  from,  choice.  The  miner  goes  to 
work  so  young,  he  spends  so  much  of  his  life  under 
ground,  his  body  becomes  so  accustomed  to  a  certain 
temperature  throughout  the  year,  his  eyes  become  so 
used  to  working  in  darkness,  that  it  is  difficult  for 
him  to  take  another  job.  William's  father  commenced 
work  as  a  little  "Caliban  of  the  Mines"  when  he  was 

10 


HIS  FATHER  EMIGRATES  TO  AMERICA  11 

seven  years  old.  He  was  a  little  bit  of  a  boy,  tender 
and  frail.  He  trudged  away  in  the  dark  before  dawn 
every  morning  with  the  other  men  and  boys  to  go 
down  into  the  bowels  of  the  earth  where  the  light  of 
sun,  moon,  or  stars  is  never  seen.  Most  of  his  life  he 
had  worked  in  this  darkness,  where  water  lies  stag- 
nant beneath  the  feet  and  where  there  is  constant 
danger  from  falling  earth  and  tumbling  timbers. 
Therefore,  not  being  fitted  for  other  work,  he  felt 
obliged  to  resume  his  previous  work. 

He  felt,  however,  that  this  could  be  but  temporary. 
The  eviction  had  emphasized  the  extent  to  which  the 
welfare  of  the  miner,  his  happiness,  and  his  future 
were  at  the  mercy  of  a  wholly  unsympathetic  corpo- 
ration. At  any  time  in  the  future  it  might  deprive 
him  and  his  family  of  bread  and  butter  and  shelter  at 
will,  and  they  would  be  without  means  of  self-pro- 
tection. Therefore,  he  began  to  consider  emigrating 
to  America.  Still  he  did  not  go  at  once,  but  secured 
work  for  awhile  at  Ferniegair,  about  two  miles  from 
Haughhead. 

Mr.  Wilson's  father  was  not  only  industrious  but 
thrifty.  He  associated  himself  with  others  in  form- 
ing what  afterward  became  a  great  co-operative  soci- 
ety, known  as  the  Cadzow  Society.  It  was  named  for 
an  ancient  castle  in  the  neighborhood  of  Blantyre, 
the  property  of  the  house  of  Hamilton.  In  speaking 
of  this  society,  Secretary  Wilson  said: 

"The  ruins  of  Cadzow  Castle  are  still  standing. 
I  visited  the  place  some  years  ago  and  examined  them 
with  more  than  ordinary  interest.  It  is  one  of  the 
oldest  castles  in  Scotland,  and  intimately  associated 
with  the  history  of  that  country,  particularly  with 


12  W.  B.  WILSON 

the  picturesque  border  warfare  in  which  the  clans  of 
Douglas,  Murray,  and  Wallace  were  for  centuries 
engaged.  Part  of  it  is  built  on  a  lofty  crag,  and  part 
is  literally  excavated  from  the  mountain,  being  hewn 
out  of  the  living  rock. 

"The  co-operative  society  paid  dividends,  which 
might  be  drawn  as  they  accrued  or  allowed  to  accu- 
mulate, as  the  member  desired.  My  father  had 
adopted  this  method  of  saving  money,  and  enough 
dividends  had  accumulated  to  his  credit  to  enable 
him  to  take  the  great  step  of  emigration  to  America. 
It  is  a  good  illustration  of  the  vital  importance  of 
having  in  this  world  a  little  money  to  fall  back  upon. 
The  poorer  the  man  the  more  necessary  it  is  that  he 
shall  have  something  saved — else  in  an  emergency  he 
is  helpless.  Had  my  father  not  possessed  his  small 
savings,  we  could  not  have  come  to  America.  As  it 
was,  we  had  enough  to  enable  my  father  to  pay  his 
own  passage,  and  to  leave  us  sufficient  money  to  pro- 
vide for  our  support  until  he  could  obtain  employ- 
ment on  this  side  of  the  water,  and  send  for  his  family 
to  follow  him. ' ' 

Of  course  the  parting  from  Ferniegair  was  sad. 
America  is  a  long  way  from  Scotland  today,  but  in 
1870  it  seemed  thousands  of  miles  farther  away.  But 
the  father  had  courage  as  well  as  principle.  As  had 
the  Pilgrim  Fathers  years  before,  he  set  his  teeth  and 
started  for  that  free  land  of  America.  He  left  Scot- 
land in  April,  1870. 

On  landing  at  New  York  he  was  sent,  with  others, 
as  so  much  freight,  to  the  bituminous  mines  of  Penn- 
sylvania, where  the  need  for  men  existed  at  that  time. 
The  mine  to  which  he  was  assigned  was  in  the  little 


HIS  FATHER  EMIGRATES  TO  AMERICA  13 

town  of  Arnot,  a  place  named  for  John  Arnot,  a  New 
York  business  man  who  was  president  of  a  big  coal 
company  there.  Arnot  is  about  five  miles  from  Bloss- 
burg  and  in  the  same  county  of  Tioga.  The  nearest 
large  city  is  Williamsport,  Pennsylvania. 

No  one  who  has  not  spent  some  time  in  a  mining 
town  can  appreciate  the  loneliness  and  barrenness  of 
one  of  these  communities.  Arnot  was  as  good  as 
many  and  perhaps  better  than  some  because  the 
workers  there  were  mostly  from  England  and  Scot- 
land. The  worst  towns  are  those  in  which  the  workers 
are  from  southern  Europe.  God  forbid  that  any  more 
such  towns  should  be  built.  No,  they  are  not  really 
built;  they  are  simply  thrown  together. 

Arnot,  in  those  days,  consisted  of  three  or  four  nar- 
row streets  with  matched  board  huts  along  them. 
None  of  these  huts  were  shingled ;  only  strips  of  board 
were  nailed  over  the  cracks  to  keep  out  the  rain,  snow, 
and  wind.  Not  a  shack  in  town  was  painted,  and 
then  none  had  even  vines  or  trees.  There  was  a  little 
Presbyterian  church  which  William's  father  attended 
the  first  Sunday  he  was  in  Arnot,  and  in  which  he 
continued  to  worship  with  his  family  as  long  as  they 
lived  in  that  place.  There  were  the  railroad  station, 
the  company  store,  the  company  doctor,  the  various 
saloons  and  places  of  sin  and  crime.  Everything  was 
owned  by  the  company,  from  the  railroad  station  to 
the  last  house.  Everything  must  be  bought  from  the 
company,  from  the  baby's  nursing  bottle  to  the  aged 
man's  coffin. 

The  two  or  three  main  streets  led  to  the  mines, 
which  were  about  ten  minutes'  walk  from  the  center 
of  the  village.  The  father  found  a  humble  place  to 
board  and  went  to  work  at  once.  The  hours  were  from 


14  \   ,W.  B.  WILSON     , 

six  o'clock  in  the  morning  to  five  o'clock  in  the  eve- 
ning. The  pay  was  seventy  cents  for  each  ton  of  coal 
mined  and  loaded. 

It  was  very  fortunate  for  the  people  of  the  United 
States,  yes,  for  the  people  of  the  world,  that  the  Im- 
migration Service  of  this  country  was  placed  under 
the  Department  of  Labor,  and  that  the  first  Secretary 
of  Labor  was  W.  B.  Wilson.  I  say  this  because  W. 
B.  Wilson  was  an  immigrant  himself  and  knows  from 
experience  the  trials  and  temptations  besetting  the 
stranger  who  comes  to  this  land.  Furthermore,  he 
understands  the  feelings  of  labor  leaders  in  their  de- 
sire to  restrict  immigration.  As  almost  no  other  high 
official,  he  has  had  a  training  and  experience  in  both 
these  opposed  directions.  He  understands  the  feel- 
ing of  the  immigrant  who  is  desirous  of  getting  into 
the  country  and  also  the  feeling  of  the  labor  leaders 
who  desire  to  keep  the  immigrant  out. 

Immediately  upon  becoming  Secretary  of  Labor, 
Mr.  Wilson  looked  into  the  immigration  situation. 
Most  of  the  cases  he  personally  handled,  and  was 
always  the  court  of  last  resort  that  decided  what 
should  be  done  in  each  instance.  He  also  took  a 
great  personal  interest  in  the  Bureau  of  Naturaliza- 
tion, whose  work  harmonized  with  that  of  the  Bureau 
of  Immigration.  He  immediately  sought  the  best  men 
available  to  place  in  charge  of  the  Immigration  and 
Naturalization  Bureaus.  He  realized  tfcat  these  men 
must  have  hearts  as  well  as  judgment,  and  must  have 
judgment  as  well  as  hearts.  He  first  sought  men  who 
were  just,  but  he  knew  that  there  must  be  more  than 
justice.  Unless  justice  is  tempered  with  sympathy 
and  understanding,  it  cannot  accomplish  the  desired 
end. 


CHAPTER  III 
BILLY  ARRIVES  AT  CASTLE  GARDEN 

IT  WAS  a  wonderful,  wonderful  moment.  The 
mother  of  William  B.  Wilson,  in  the  little  town  of 
Haughhead,  Scotland,  received  a  letter  from  America, 
inclosing  a  sufficient  sum  of  money  to  enable  her  and 
the  three  children  to  join  their  father.  Of  course,  it 
wasn't  much  money,  much  less  for  those  four  than 
one  of  us  would  spend  for  an  ordinary  journey  today. 
But  they  were  going  to  see  Father.  They  cared  not 
that  they  were  going  steerage;  they  cared  not  what 
a  terrible  two  weeks  lay  ahead  of  them.  All  they 
could  think  of  was  America  and  Father.  This  letter 
arrived  in  the  last  month  of  summer  in  1870,  the  same 
year  in  which  the  father  set  sail.  In  these  few  months 
in  America  he  had  been  able  to  save  enough  to  bring 
his  wife  and  three  children  to  this  land  of  freedom. 

William  B.  Wilson,  at  the  age  of  eight,  left  his  home 
in  Scotland,  wkh.  his  little  brother  and  sister  holding 
tight  to  his  hands,  and  trudged  along  behind  the 
mother,  who  was  carrying  the  baggage  and  all  their 
possessions.  They  sailed  from  Glasgow  on  the  27th 
day  of  August,  1870.  They  came  over  in  the  steerage 
of  a  small  ship.  Only  those  who  have  traveled  in 
the  steerage  know  what  that  means,  and  only  persons 
who  came  in  those  early  days  can  appreciate  what  that 
mother  and  the  three  children  went  through  during 
that  trip.  However,  they  were  coming  to  America! 
They  were  coming  to  meet  Father!  Nothing  else 
mattered. 

15 


16  W.  B.  WILSON 

At  the  end  of  about  two  weeks  they  landed  at 
Castle  Garden,  New  York,  with  a  boat  load  of  other 
poor  immigrants.  They  had  no  idea  of  the  size  of 
the  State  of  Pennsylvania,  nor  of  the  size  of  America. 
The  father  had  written  that  Arnot  was  near  New 
York,  while  Arnot  is  about  250  miles  from  New  York. 
it  is  very  near  compared  with  Chicago,  Denver,  and 
the  Pacific  Coast.  When,  however,  you  compare  that 
distance  with  the  distance  from  the  northern  tip  of 
Scotland  to  the  southern  tip  of  England,  which  all 
together  is  only  about  500  miles,  we  see  how  easy  it 
is  to  mislead  our  immigrants. 

Father  had  written  that  he  would  be  in  New  York 
to  meet  them  when  they  arrived,  but  the  boat  landed 
before  it  was  expected.  When  Mother  and  the  three 
children  reached  New  York,  no  one  had  seen  or  heard 
of  Father. 

"I  shall  never  forget,"  said  the  Secretary  to  me, 
"when  we  landed  at  Castle  Garden  with  that  boat- 
load of  immigrants.  We  expected  Father  to  meet  us, 
but  after  looking  everywhere,  we  could  not  find  him. 
I  shall  never  forget  how  my  poor  mother  sat  down 
on  the  wharf  and  cried  and  cried.  Then  one  by  one 
we  all  began  to  cry;  but  before  long  we  heard  some 
one  going  tip  and  down  the  wharf,  calling:  'Mrs. 
Helen  N.  Wilson!  Mrs.  Helen  N.  Wilson!'  " 

This,  however,  was  not  the  father.  He  had  sent  so 
much  money  to  Scotland  to  pay  for  their  tickets,  that 
he  had  not  the  money  to  come  to  New  York.  This 
was  merely  a  letter  from  him.  Mother  quickly  tore 
it  open  and  in  it  found  just  enough  money  to  take 
the  family  to  Corning,  New  York.  So  they  went 
from  Castle  Garden  over  to  the  Erie  Railroad,  crossed 


BILLY  ARRIVES  AT  CASTLE  GARDEN     17 

the  ferry,  and  took  a  train  for  Corning.  Meanwhile, 
the  father  was  on  his  way  from  Arnot  to  Corning. 
Surely  that  was  a  happy  reunion  of  the  Wilson  family 
at  Corning.  They,  however,  did  not  stay  long  in 
Corning,  but  kept  on  in  the  dirty  little  day  coach 
till  they  reached  the  town  of  Arnot  very  late  Satur- 
day night. 

I  once  asked  the  Secretary  to  tell  me  about  his  first 
view  of  America.  I  supposed  he  would  talk  about 
his  entrance  into  the  harbor  and  his  experience  at 
Castle  Garden.  I  forgot  that  he  was  down  in  the 
hold  of  the  ship  where  there  are  no  port  holes,  so  he 
could  not  see  the  harbor;  and  that  they  quickly  left 
Castle  Garden  for  Corning.  This  was  his  answer  to 
my  question : 

"Really  my  first  view  of  America  was  early  that 
Sunday  morning  following  my  arrival  in  Arnot.  We 
did  not  get  to  bed  until  after  two  o'clock,  but  boy- 
like,  I  was  awake  and  dressed  at  daybreak.  My  first 
impression  was  one  of  tomatoes.  There  was  a  row 
on  the  window  sill  of  the  room  in  which  I  slept, 
placed  there  to  ripen  in  the  sun.  They  were  the  first 
I  had  ever  seen.  I  had  not  had  anything  to  eat  for 
twenty-four  hours,  and  I  could  not  resist  the  tempta- 
tion to  bite  into  one  of  those  tomatoes,  thinking  it 
must  taste  as  good  as  it  looked.  I  thought  I  was 
poisoned!  I  gave  one  yell  and  ran  out  doors.  But 
after  getting  a  good  drink  of  water,  I  felt  able  to 
come  in  and  help  the  family  get  breakfast.  This  was 
my  first  American  breakfast,  and  it  certainly  did  taste 
good  after  having  nothing  to  eat  for  so  long.  But  we 
were  awfully  poor.  Mother  had  spent  all  the  money 
for  the  passage.  Father  had  sent  enough  to  us  at 


l8  W.  B.  WILSON 

Castle  Garden  only  to  pay  our  railroad  fares.  So 
there  was  nothing  to  do  but  go  without  eating." 

For  a  while  Father  and  Mother  Wilson  and  the 
three  children  lived  in  the  house  where  the  father 
had  boarded.  Later,  however,  the  company  built  a 
little  shack  for  them.  In  this  house  they  spent  their 
lives.  The  house  is  still  standing.  Additions  have 
been  made  to  it,  so  that  it  is  much  larger.  A  little 
piazza  has  been  built  on  the  side,  where  the  lad  spent 
many  a  happy  moment.  Vines  now  cover  the  walls, 
which  are  still  simply  of  matched  boards,  with  no 
shingles  or  clapboards. 

Within  a  few  days  the  boy  William  was  put  into 
the  public  school  at  Arnot.  As  the  father  could 
barely  read,  it  was  his  great  ambition  to  give  William 
an  education.  It  was  a  very  happy  day  for  William 
when  he  entered  this  little  school  at  Arnot.  He 
studied  hard  and  made  the  best  of  every  moment, 
"for  America's  sake,"  he  would  say.  This  reminds 
me  of  the  meaning  of  Mr.  Wilson's  middle  name. 
He  was  named  for  his  mother's  father,  Bauchop,  the 
Celtic  for  two  words — Bauch,  meaning  little,  and  Op, 
signifying  son.  It  was  peculiarly  fitting  as  applied 
to  the  little  son  of  Helen  Nelson  Bauchop  Wilson  and 
Adam  Black  Wilson,  because  William  Bauchop  Wil- 
son was  the  inseparable  companion  of  his  father,  not 
only  when  they  sat  together  in  the  mines,  but  when 
they  were  together  after  supper,  and  by  the  light  of 
the  lamp  the  small  boy  read  aloud  about  the  things 
his  father  wanted  to  know. 

Of  course,  the  arrival  of  the  mother  and  children 
increased  greatly  the  father's  burdens.  It  cost  more 
then  to  live  in  America  than  in  Scotland,  as  it  does 


BILLY  ARRIVES  AT  CASTLE  GARDEN    19 

today.  Although  wages  were  higher  in  this  country, 
the  cost  of  living  was  likewise  higher.  The  father 
didn't  realize  this  until  the  wife  and  children  came. 
But  he  gritted  his  teeth  and  made  his  pick  go  faster 
and  worked  longer  hours  in  the  damp,  dark  mines, 
wheezing  now  from  asthma,  "the  miner's  choke," 
getting  wet  from  the  leaking  water,  breathing  into  his 
lungs  the  fine  particles  of  dust  which  rise  in  great 
clouds.  Words  fail  to  describe  the  working  condi- 
tions of  the  mines  of  those  days. 

It  was  always  a  disappointment  to  the  Secretary 
that  he  had  not  been  able  to  have  immigrants  exam- 
ined in  their  own  countries  before  sailing.  One  of 
the  greatest  tragedies  of  modern  times  is  that  of  fam- 
ilies selling  all  their  possessions  and  buying  tickets 
for  America,  only  to  be  forbidden  to  land  and  turned 
back  upon  their  arrival  on  our  shores.  For  years  the 
Secretary  of  Labor  tried  to  remedy  this  by  urging 
Congress  to  provide  that  this  examination  be  made  in 
the  home  countries.  In  talking  this  over  with  me 
one  day,  Mr.  Wilson  said: 

"I  would  rather  see  immigration  greatly  restricted 
than  to  have  many  more  of  these  tragedies  occur.  It 
is  not  a  tragedy  for  a  man  not  to  be  able  to  emigrate 
to  America,  however  much  of  a  disappointment  it 
may  be.  To  have  him  sell  all  and  emigrate  and  then 
be  thrown  back  is  a  tragedy." 

Before  the  war  Secretary  Wilson  sent  to  Europe 
an  expert  investigator,  Mr.  W.  W.  Husband,  to  look 
into  immigration  conditions  in  Germany,  Russia,  Aus- 
tria-Hungary, Greece,  Italy,  and  the  Balkan  Penin- 
sula. The  Secretary  had  one  main  object  in  sending 
Mr.  Husband,  to  find  out  the  conditions  under  which 


20  W.  B.  WILSON 

these  emigrants  left  their  countries,  in  order,  if  pos- 
sible to  decide  on  some  means  to  prevent  their  starting 
when  for  any  reason  they  would  be  likely  to  be  sent 
back.  When  asked  what  his  expert  had  learned  from 
his  investigations,  Secretary  Wilson  answered: 

"He  found  that  a  very  large  number  of  aliens  are 
indirectly  induced  to  emigrate  to  the  United  States. 
European  countries  have  laws  regulating  the  emigra- 
tion of  their  inhabitants  and  take  upon  themselves 
a  measure  of  supervision  over  their  water  transpor- 
tation lines.  No  country  wants  its  people  to  violate 
its  laws.  While  open  efforts  to  promote  immigration 
are  prohibited,  thousands  of  aliens  at  village  markets 
and  fairs  are  secretly  advised  to  come  to  America  by 
steamship  agents,  who  get  commissions  on  the  tickets 
they  sell. 

' '  Thus  persons  who  will  be  turned  back  at  our  ports 
on  their  arrival  here  purchase  tickets  under  solicita- 
tion, not  knowing  either  the  law  or  the  facts  bearing 
on  the  situation.  They  are  poor,  often  miserably  so, 
but  by  selling  their  few  personal  belongings  they  get 
sufficient  money  with  which  to  pay  their  ocean  pas- 
sage. When  they  leave  their  old  homes  they  have 
nothing  but  the  clothing  they  wear  and  the  little 
bundles  they  carry  in  their  hands.  But  they  are 
filled  with  hope  and  feel  that  their  luck  will  turn 
once  they  are  in  the  United  States. 

"Penniless,  they  arrive  in  New  York,  only  to  find 
that  they  must  return  to  the  village  they  have  left. 
Their  homes  have  been  broken  up.  Their  property, 
turned  into  money  and  spent,  is  gone.  It  is  true  the 
steamships  that  brought  them  over  are  required  to 
take  them  back  free  of  charge,  but  they  are  ruined, 
none  the  less. 


BILLY  ARRIVES  AT  CASTLE  GARDEN    21 

''It  seemed  to  me,  as  I  became  familiar  with  the  im- 
migrant problem,  that  something  should  be  done  to 
stop  the  coming  of  these  aliens  who,  for  one  reason 
or  another  in  our  laws,  are  prevented  from  entering 
the  country.  So  I  asked  Mr.  Husband  to  visit  Europe, 
talk  with  public  officials,  with  steamship  managers, 
and  with  priests,  rabbis,  and  ministers.  Our  purpose 
was  to  show  just  what  classes  of  aliens  are  prohibited 
from  coming  into  the  United  States,  and  to  spread  the 
information  in  small  villages  and  rural  districts  and 
in  the  people's  homes. 

"Wherever  Mr.  Husband  went  he  was  well  re- 
ceived. Public  officers,  transportation  companies,  and 
churches  sympathized  with  what  we  are  trying  to 
accomplish,  and  promised  their  co-operation.  They 
saw  that  a  cripple  or  beggar,  or  a  diseased  person, 
should  remain  in  the  village  where  he  belongs,  and 
that  if  he  were  shipped  to  America  hs  would  surely 
be  sent  back  to  his  own  home  in  course  of  time.  But 
before  Mr.  Husband's  report  could  be  put  into  type 
Europe  went  to  war.  International  relations  are  in 
so  delicate  a  balance  now  that  we  have  decided  to 
hold  the  report  back  for  the  present. 

"A  plain  statement  of  the  immigration  laws  of  the 
United  States  has  been  sent,  however,  to  all  our  diplo- 
matic and  consular  officers  in  Europe.  Full  descrip- 
tions are  given  of  those  persons  who  are  debarred  by 
cause  from  coming  into  the  United  States.  Publicity 
regarding  these  laws  ought  to  prevent  persons  return- 
ing to  their  own  countries  and  not  being  able  to  tell 
why  they  were  deported.  During  the  war  many 
weaklings,  derelicts,  and  criminals,  no  doubt,  tried 
to  get  into  this  country.  And  now  that  the  war  is 


22  W.  B.  WILSON 

over  great  numbers  of  broken  men  and  women  will 
want  to  forget  their  sorrows  and  try  to  rebuild  them- 
selves in  free  America. 

"Of  course,  immigration  fell  off  at  once  at  the  out- 
break of  the  European  War.  From  August  1  to  Oc- 
tober 1,  1913,  immigrants  to  the  number  of  310,452 
entered  the  United  States.  During  the  same  period 
in  1914  the  number  was  only  89,789.  What  effect 
the  war  will  have  on  immigration  in  the  long  run  is 
conjectural.  There  are  two  theories.  It  is  argued 
that  the  men  and  women  of  Europe,  worn  out,  stricken 
with  poverty,  fearful  of  other  wars,  will  come  in  im- 
mense numbers  to  the  United  States.  On  the  other 
hand,  it  is  maintained  that  ruined  Europe  will  have 
to  be  rebuilt  and  that  work  at  good  wages  will  be 
abundant  for  all  able-bodied  men." 

On  being  asked  a  question  regarding  the  restriction 
of  immigration,  Secretary  Wilson  answered: 

"In  my  opinion,  no  more  aliens  should  come  into 
the  country  during  a  given  year  than  can  be  properly 
assimilated, — that  is,  absorbed  so  completely  as  not  to 
affect  our  institutions  injuriously.  In  almost  every 
case  the  alien  landing  at  our  ports  is  poor.  It  is 
necessary  that  he  should  have  work  at  once.  There 
are  no  more  free  Government  lands  on  which  he  may 
settle.  If  he  wants  land,  he  must  buy  it.  He  has  no 
money,  however,  with  which  to  obtain  land,  no  money 
for  tools  and  livestock,  and  nothing  on  which  to  live 
until  he  can  grow  a  crop.  So  he  remains  where  he  is 
or  goes  to  a  nearby  mining  or  manufacturing  district, 
and  perhaps  adds  another  unit  to  the  oversupply 
in  that  labor  market. 

"Now  an  excess  of  labor  means,  of  course,  that 


BILLY  ARRIVES  AT  CASTLE  GARDEN    23 

under  the  pressure  of  competition  wages  fall  or  that 
the  days  of  work  are  reduced,  and,  logically,  that  the 
standard  of  living  is  lowered.  When  such  things 
happen  a  community  is  not  in  a  sound  economic  con- 
dition. A  million  aliens  a  year  are  not  too  many, 
possibly,  for  a  country  so  large  and  generally  so 
prosperous  as  the  United  States,  provided  that  the 
million  is  properly  distributed." 

There  are  three  ways  under  discussion  by  which 
the  stream  of  immigration  can  be  cut  down.  An  edu- 
cational test  is  being  urged  by  many  public  men. 
Aliens,  these  men  argue,  should,  be  able  to  read  and 
write  their  own  language.  The  reply  is  made  in  op- 
position to  this  suggestion  that  the  literacy  test  would 
exclude  many  young  and  healthy  aliens,  and  admit 
agitators  and  persons  living  principally  by  their  in- 
genuity. 

Another  proposal  is  to  base  all  future  immigration 
on  the  number  of  aliens  now  in  the  United  States 
from  each  country.  If  that  idea  became  a  law,  there 
would  be  a  large  decrease  in  the  number  or  immi- 
grants admitted  from  Greece,  Italy,  and  Austria- 
Hungary,  but  there  would  be  no  appreciable  effect 
upon  immigration  from  Russia,  and  no  effect  whatever 
upon  immigration  from  Great  Britain,  France,  and 
Germany,  or  the  countries  of  northern  Europe. 

A  third  plan  for  reducing  immigration  is  to  admit 
immigrants  to  eastern  ports  of  the  country  in  propor- 
tion to  the  population  of  the  countries  from  which 
they  come,  taking  into  account  at  the  same  time  the 
condition  of  business  in  the  United  States.  Under 
this  scheme  Russia  would  fare  best,  and  Germany, 
Austria-Hungary,  France,  Italy,  and  England  would 
follow  in  order  as  given. 


24  W.  B.  WILSON 

Foreign  language  societies,  Hebrew  societies,  those 
political  economists  who  maintain  that  men  should 
move  without  hindrance  wherever  they  choose,  and 
certain  large  corporations  which  view  with  compo- 
sure an  over-supplied  labor  market,  are  antagonistic 
to  all  attempts  further  to  limit  the  human  tide  that 
is  sweeping  in  upon  the  shores  of  the  United  States. 

Organized  labor,  patriotic  societies,  and  some  or- 
ganizations of  farmers  are  urging  additional  restric- 
tive legislation.  The  literacy  test  is  approved  hy 
organized  labor  and  the  patriotic  associations.  Fifty- 
six  per  cent,  of  the  immigrants  arriving  from  south- 
ern Italy  are  illiterate.  The  education  laws  of  Italy 
are  the  same  north  and  south.  There  are  striking 
dissimilarities,  however,  between  the  people  of  the  two 
regions. 

One  day  I  said  to  Secretary  Wilson : 

"Thousands  of  men  working  in  this  country  re- 
turned to  Europe  at  the  call  of  their  countries  and 
are  now  engaged  in  war.  Should  aliens  who  come 
here  to  find  work  be  required  to  take  out  papers  of 
naturalization  ? ' ' 

"I  do  not  think  so,"  Secretary  Wilson  answered. 
"The  alien  who  becomes  a  citizen  or  takes  steps  to 
become  a  citizen  should  do  so  freely  and  not  under 
any  sort  of  compulsion.  He  should  want  to  be  an 
American,  should  believe  in  our  institutions,  and  love 
liberty.  Such  a  man  will  make  a  good  citizen  and 
his  children  will  be  patriotic  Americans.  It  would 
be  no  gain  to  the  country  were  he  forced  to  accept 
citizenship;  on  the  contrary,  it  would  be  an  injury. 

"Besides,  if  entrance  to  the  United  States  were  con- 
ditional on  citizenship,  nothing  could  prevent  an  alien 


BILLY  ARRIVES  AT  CASTLE  GARDEN    25 

from  applying  for  first  papers,  thus  signifying  his 
intention,  and  then  refusing  later  to  complete  the  re- 
quired process.  Fraud  would  be  encouraged,  and  we 
should  be  making  a  mockery,  as  I  see  it,  of  a  sacred 
privilege. ' ' 

In  discussing  this  question  of  the  restriction  of  im- 
migration, Secretary  Wilson  is  very  sympathetic  with 
the  immigrant,  but  he  says: 

"We  must  not  think  simply  of  the  man  who  wants 
to  enter  our  country ;  but  we  must  also  think  of  those 
who  have  already  come  in.  They  need  protection  as 
much  as  the  immigrant  needs  sympathy.  When  we 
let  them  into  a  country,  we  assume  a  responsibility 
as  well  as  a  burden.  We  owe  it  to  them  not  to  take 
in  too  many  or  more  than  the  nation  can  well  assimi- 
late. 

"If  men  were  mere  machines,  then  we  could  afford 
to  take  in  anybody  who  would  produce  more  than 
he  would  consume.  Under  such  conditions  we  should 
need  simply  to  balance  the  producing  and  consuming 
qualities  of  our  immigrants.  But  immigrants  are  not 
machines.  Not  only  have  they  souls  which  we  must 
consider,  but  they  bring  with  them  other  things  be- 
sides the  power  to  produce  and  consume.  Immigrants 
can  bring  disease,  not  only  of  the  body  but  also  of 
the  mind.  A  machine  will  consume  raw  material  and 
turn  out  the  finished  product.  We  know  its  limita- 
tions as  well  as  its  capacity.  An  immigrant,  however, 
does  much  more  than  consume  and  produce.  Every 
immigrant  has  a  certain  moral  influence  in  this  coun- 
try, either  for  good  or  for  evil.  Moreover,  he  has  this 
influence  with  a  foreign  group,  a  group  which  it  is 
difficult  for  the  rest  of  us  to  reach."  «_j 


CHAPTER  IV 
His  BOYHOOD  ENDS —  JOINING  THE  UNION. 

A  slight  little  fellow,  not  yet  in  his  teens, 

His  arms  to  his  elbows  tucked  down  in  his  jeans; 

No  cares  for  the  present,  no  thoughts  of  the  past, 

No  plans  for  the  future,  no  troubles  that  last; 

No  bird  as  it  sings  o'er  its  nest  in  the  tree 

Its  ode  to  the  morning  more  happy  than  he, 

His  loud  ringing  whistle,  clear,  piercing,  and  shrill, 

Re-echoes  the  joys  of  his  heart  o'er  the  hill — 

He  is  starting  in  life  as  a  miner. 

THIS  description  of  a  happy  little  lad  is  taken  from 
one  of  Mr.  "Wilson's  own  poems.  We  can  well  imag- 
ine it  pictures  his  own  boyhood.  One  need  only  look 
at  the  Secretary's  face  to  realize  that  he  must  always 
have  been  cheery,  even  when  his  later  life  brought 
him  many  cares  and  responsibilities. 

After  the  family  was  safely  landed  at  Arnot,  and 
settled  in  a  home,  naturally  the  next  thing  was  to  start 
the  children  in  school.  Reuben  Howland,  an  old- 
time  schoolmaster,  was  in  charge  of  the  public  school, 
and  what  little  early  education  Billy  had  was  attained 
in  this  school,  supplemented  with  tutoring  by  this 
Mr.  Howland.  The  boy  had  had  quite  a  vacation 
since  the  days  with  the  tall  teacher  with  the  black 
curls  in  Scotland,  when  he  plunged  through  reader 
after  reader  at  breakneck  speed.  He  probably,  like 
other  children,  had  enjoyed  the  activity  and  changes 
of  the  journey  to  the  new  home,  in  spite  of  its  dis- 
comforts, but  no  doubt  he  was  now  glad  to  begin  to 
study  again,  ' 

26 


HIS  BOYHOOD  ENDS  27 

The  happy  little  fellow  trudged  along  to  school, 
day  after  day,  care-free  and  full  of  play.  His  eager- 
ness to  learn  would  surely  make  him  excel  in  his  les- 
sons, and  his  natural  boylike  exuberance  would  cause 
him  to  enter  enthusiastically  into  the  sports  of  the 
playground.  We  may  be  sure  that  Billy  was  popu- 
lar; the  same  traits  that  have  won  him  the  love  and 
support  of  his  townspeople  and  fellow  workers  every- 
where, were  present  in  the  small  boy's  disposition. 
We  can  imagine  him  a  leader  among  the  boys,  as  he 
afterward  became  prominent  in  settling  difficulties 
among  workers.  This  was  the  one  period  of  Bill's 
life  when  he  was  free  from  responsibility  and  bent  on 
getting  the  most  out  of  life  for  himself. 

Yet,  even  at  this  time,  life  was  not  all  fun  for  Bill. 
He  tells  of  the  first  money  he  ever  earned,  saying: 
"The  first  real  money  I  ever  earned  was  about  two 
dollars,  collected  from  the  neighbors  for  carrying 
water,  running  errands,  and  being  general  messenger 
and  delivery  boy  for  the  community. '  * 

This  must  have  been  before  he  left  school,  and  must 
have  been  gathered  slowly  little  by  little,  for  other 
people  in  that  community  were  poor,  too,  and  we  may 
be  sure  they  could  not  afford  to  pay  much  for  the  ser- 
vices that  Bill  rendered.  Now,  what  did  the  boy  do 
with  this  hard-earned  two  dollars?  Did  he  hand  it 
over  to  his  mother  to  help  in  buying  necessary  cloth- 
ing or  supplies?  Did  he  put  it  aside  for  future  need? 
Or  did  he  invest  it  so  that  it  would  bring  him  some 
return  later?  The  boy's  thirst  for  knowledge  de- 
cided. His  parents  wisely  let  him  use  the  money  as 
he  wished.  He  says : 

"With  that  large  sum  I  purchased  a  second-hand 


28  W.  B.  WILSON 

edition  of  Chambers 's  Information  for  the  People, 
and,  as  I  recall  the  months  that  followed,  I  must  have 
read  everything  about  every  subject  in  those  volumes 
to  my  father. ' ' 

He  did  invest  it  so  that  it  would  bring  him  some 
return  later.  With  the  boy's  wonderfully  retentive 
memory,  those  stores  of  miscellaneous  knowledge  have 
proved  a  veritable  mine  of  useful  information.  And 
this  was  the  boy's  choice  of  a  purchase  when  not  nine 
years  old !  No  wonder  his  parents  longed  to  educate 
him  in  the  hope  that  he  would  follow  a  literary  career 
and  become  famous  in  the  world  of  literature. 

Meanwhile,  his  father  was  working  far  beyond  his 
strength,  and  became  ill  with  lumbago.  After  sev- 
eral attacks  he  was  left  in  such  a  condition  that  it 
was  agony  to  stoop.  But  he  must  go  on  with  his  work 
in  the  mines,  for  he  had  been  trained  to  nothing  else 
and  the  family  must  be  supported.  What  should  they 
do  ?  No  doubt  the  parents  talked  it  over  many  nights 
after  the  children  were  in  bed,  knowing  all  the  time 
that  there  was  but  one  thing  to  do,  but  dreading  to 
shatter  all  their  dreams  for  the  future  of  their  tal- 
ented son. 

Reluctantly  they  at  last  came  to  the  point  where  they 
told  William  he  must  leave  school  and  help  his  father. 
Father  could  sit  on  the  floor  of  the  mine,  his  power- 
ful arms  could  still  undercut,  getting  out  the  coal  for 
some  one  else  to  pile  on  the  cars.  That  6ome  one  else, 
then,  was  to  be  little  William,  only  nine  years  old. 
Yes,  yes,  that  boy  who  was  so  happy  at  his  first  year 
in  school  was  torn  away  from  his  life's  hope  and  put 
to  work  in  the  damp,  dark  mines  at  nine  years  of  age. 

Bravely  the  boy  shouldered  the  burden,  his  dis- 


HIS  BOYHOOD  ENDS  29 

appointment  at  having  to  interrupt  his  education  tem- 
pered by  the  thought  that  he  was  a  helper  in  the 
family  and  indispensable  to  its  support.  But  think 
of  it !  Think  of  your  own  nine-year-old  lad,  or  any 
other  boy  of  that  age  of  your  acquaintance,  and  how 
you  would  like  to  have  him  starting  out  before  day- 
light, trudging  along  with  rough  men  and  boys  to  the 
mouth  of  the  mine,  there  to  be  put  into  a  little  car 
and  carried  into  the  depths  of  the  earth.  With  only 
the  little  light  on  his  cap -to  guide  him,  he  must  find 
his  way  to  the  spot  assigned  to  him. 

Here,  in  the  foul  air,  amid  the  deafening  roar  of 
machinery,  the  little  boy,  who  should  have  been  at 
play  with  marbles  in  the  sunshine  or  in  a  well-aired 
schoolroom  with  the  'books  his  intellectual  soul  craved, 
was  condemned  to  work  for  our  comfort  ten  hours  a 
day.  Because  Father  could  not  do  it,  he  must  all 
day  stoop  and  lift  the  pieces  of  coal  to  the  little  cars 
which  came  in  an  unceasing  procession,  relentlessly 
urging  the  boy  to  greater  efforts. 

Now  and  then  one  of  the  children  would  get  caught 
in  the  machinery  and  be  frightfully  mangled,  or 
would  slip  into  the  chute  and  be  smothered  to  death. 
Many  children  are  killed  in  this  way.  All  are  old 
men  before  their  time.  It  was  during  the  first  year 
of  William's  work  in  the  mine  that  he  was  buried 
under  the  rock  in  the  mine.  In  talking  to  the  Secre- 
tary of  Labor  one  day,  some  one  asked: 

"Do  you  remember  anything  particularly  vivid  or 
dramatic  about  those  days  when  you  were  a  boy  work- 
ing in  the  mine?" 

"Let  me  think,"  said  the  Secretary,  in  his  calm, 
dispassionate  voice.  "Of  course,  there  are  certain 


30  W.  B.  WILSON 

things  that  are  always  vivid — I  don't  know  whether 
you  would  call  them  dramatic  or  not.  It  was  when 
I  was  just  nine  years  old  I  was  buried  under  the  rock 
in  the  mines." 

"When  you  were  working  there  beside  your 
father?"  the  questioner  gasped. 

"Yes.  There  was  a  ledge  of  rock."  (Secretary 
Wilson  could  not  pronounce  rock  or  prop  without 
betraying  his  Scotch  burr. )  ' '  This  ledge  of  rock  had 
been  pronounced  unsafe.  So,  as  I  had  to  shovel  be- 
neath it,  my  father  fixed  a  prop  under  the  ledge  to 
protect  me.  In  some  way  or  other  the  prop  gave 
way,  a  bit  of  rock  fell  down,  and  I  was  caught.  There 
was  quite  a  shower  of  rock,  but  it  happened  'that  the 
prop  fell  parallel  with  the  rock,  and  I  lay  in  between 
the  two  till  they  dug  me  out." 

"And  your  father  calling,  calling  'Wullie!  Wul- 
lie!'?" 

"Oh,  yes,"  answered  the  Secretary  of  Labor.  "But 
I  was  not  killed." 

What  must  have  been  the  father's  feelings  while 
waiting  and  calling  for  help  to  rescue  his  boy! 

At  night,  after  sundown,  weary  and  coal  begrimed, 
the  little  lad  came  up  with  the  others  and 
dragged  himself  home  to  one  of  a  row  of  flimsy  cot- 
tages that  belonged  to  the  company,  with  one  idea  in 
his  mind,  to  get  something  to  eat  before  tumbling  into 
bed.  For  the  first  few  months  this  was  the  routine, 
working  and  sleeping ;  almost  too  tired  to  take  even 
a  few  mouthfuls  of  the  scanty  supper  of  dry  bread 
and  porridge  which  was  all  they  could  afford.  Even 
this,  "his  own  childish  energy  had  pitifully  helped 
to  wrest  from  the  vast  storehouses  of  plenty  hoarded 


HIS  BOYHOOD  ENDS  31 

so  inhumanly  by  capital."  What  a  dismal  life  for 
a  happy  lad  of  nine,  who  loved  to  run  about  and  play 
in  the  sunshine,  and  who  had  as  much  right  to  the 
pleasure  of  a  care-free  childhood  as  have  your  own 
boys. 

After  a  few  months,  however,  though  his  growing 
body  still  cried  out  for  food  and  sleep,  he  became, 
in  a  measure,  accustomed  to  the  hard  work.  A  strong 
constitution,  inherited  from  rugged  Scotch  ancestors,, 
hardened  with  the  steady  toil.  His  eagerness  for  in-j 
tellectual  pursuits  asserted  itself  and  he  found  he! 
could  sit  up  after  supper  and  read  awhile.  Then  his 
evenings  were  spent  in  reading  to  his  father  and 
studying  as  he  might  alone.  , 

About  this  time  the  community  arranged  for  a' 
night  school.  Each  pupil  had  to  pay  a  dollar  a  month 
to  the  principal,  and  for  a  time,  at  a  sacrifice  of  much 
needed  food  and  rest,  "William  was  able  to  attend. 
Here  he  says  he  picked  up  a  little  on  his  school 
studies.  But  the  reading  with  his  father  seemed  to 
be  the  main  part  of  his  education.  Father  could  not 
read  very  well  and  his  wife  had  always  been  in  the 
habit  of  reading  to  him.  As  soon  as  "William  was 
able  to  take  this  upon  himself,  father  and  son  spent 
their  evenings  together,  studying  and  reading  history, 
philosophy,  and  economics,  the  boy  helped  by  the 
father's  naturally  fine  mind  and  wonderful  ability 
to  grasp  deep  subjects.  The  father  was  very  fond  of 
argument  and  debate,  and  his  retentive  memory  en- 
abled him  to  enter  the  lists  with  those  better  educated 
than  himself  in  school  learning.  William  also  had  a 
wonderful  memory,  and  could  always  give  authority 
and  reference  to  prove  his  father's  statements. 


32  W.  B.  WILSON 

For  seven  years  he  worked  with  his  father  in  the 
mine,  at  first  only  loading.  Then  his  father  taught 
him  to  aid  in  drilling,  and  finally  he  learned  all  kinds 
of  mining.  He  continued  mining  coal  for  twenty- 
seven  years,  and  after  that  he  mined  coal  in  the 
winter  and  worked  on  the  farm  in  the  summer.  He 
says  he  was  a  strong,  husky  lad — he  must  have  been  to 
endure  such  toil — and  could  load  from  six  to  seven 
tons  of  coal  a  day  into  the  little  cars  that  ran  in  and 
out  of  the  mines.  Just  what  they  had  to  eat,  whether 
it  was  little  or  much,  depended  on  what  was  loaded 
into  those  cars  during  the  week.  ' 

When  he  was  eleven  years  old  he  became  a  half 
member  of  the  Mine  Workers'  Union.  His  life  has 
been  devoted  to  the  interests  of  the  laboring  man. 
His  influence  has  been  all  the  greater  because  his 
knowledge  of  manual  labor  has  not  been  theoretical 
but  practical.  He  sympathized  with  the  working  man 
as  few  could,  and  this  sympathy  was  freely  bestowed 
on  those  who  came  in  contact  with  him.  Yet  he  was 
not  in  the  least  bitter  toward  the  employer.  His 
feeling  toward  such  was  generous. 

Certainly  these  were  hard  days  for  the  little  fellow, 
thus  robbed  of  childhood 's  right  to  play  and  deprived 
of  the  chance  to  attend  school.  Yet  perhaps  this 
early  hardship  was  his  making.  He  was  forced  to 
search  for  opportunities  to  better  his  condition,  and 
his  mind  inevitably  turned  toward  certain  ideals. 


CHAPTER  V 
THE  COBBLER'S  SHOP 

A  FAVORITE  gathering  place  for  the  miners  of  Arnot 
in  the  evenings  was  the  cobbler's  shop  of  a  man  by 
the  name  of  Hugh  Kerwin.  As  many  of  the  workers 
in  the  mines  of  Arnot  were  of  Scotch,  English,  or 
Irish  descent,  they  were  of  a  higher  grade  intellectu- 
ally than  those  of  many  mining  towns  of  Pennsyl- 
vania. This  Mr.  Kerwin  was  an  omnivorous  reader. 
He  and  his  associates  had  social  and  political  theories 
of  their  own.  He  took  newspapers  and  even  sub- 
scribed for  the  Congressional  Record. 

When  these  sturdy  miners  came  together,  they  had 
lively  arguments  over  national  and  international  af- 
fairs, and  debated  questions  of  philosophy,  theology, 
and  economics.  The  problems  connected  with  the 
labor  world  were  also  discussed,  and  no  doubt  many 
plans  for  bettering  the  condition  of  workers  were 
threshed  out  in  the  little  back  room  of  Mr.  Kerwin 's 
shop,  where  they  met.  There  was  located  the  Read- 
ing Room  and  library,  the  only  one  really  worth  the 
name  in  the  village. 

One  night  young  William  went  to  one  of  these 
meetings  with  his  father,  and  heard  the  men  debating. 
This  opened  a  new  world  to  him.  It  was  the  first 
time  he  had  heard  such  talk  outside  his  home.  From 
that  moment  he  eagerly  looked  forward  each  day  to 
the  time  when  he  might  go  to  the  little  back  shop  and 
hear  these  wonderful  discussions.  He  would  sit  and 

33 


34  W.  B.  WILSON 

listen  entranced  and  would  remember  most  of  the 
arguments. 

The  shoemaker  noticed  the  shy,  interested  lad,  with 
his  keen  blue  eyes  and  his  bright  intellectual  face, 
and  lent  him  books  to  read.  The  boy  devoured  these 
hungrily,  sitting  up  far  into  the  nights  to  finish  them, 
and  using  the  few  spare  moments  in  the  mine  to  pore 
over  them  by  the  dim  light  of  the  miner's  lamp  on 
his  cap.  The  shoemaker  was  curious  to  know  whether 
the  boy  really  understood  such  books  and  got  any- 
thing out  of  them.  So  he  asked  the  lad  some  ques- 
tions and  found  that  he  really  seemed  to  grasp  the 
meaning  of  those  big  ideas,  and  remembered  and 
thought  about  them.  As  one  has  said :  ' '  His  thirsty 
mind  absorbed  facts  and  catalogued  them  naturally. ' ' 

After  a  while  he  had  read  and  digested  all  the 
books  in  Mr.  Kerwin 's  library,  and  still  was  not  satis- 
fied. Other  mine  boys,  following  his  lead,  had  also 
become  interested.  To  hold  this  interest  more  books 
were  needed.  So,  under  the  wise  direction  of  Mr. 
Kerwin,  a  library  society  was  formed,  dues  were  col- 
lected (out  of  the  slender  pittance  these  boys  earned), 
and  new  books  were  purchased.  William  was  made 
librarian  and  to  him  was  intrusted  the  pleasant  task, 
no  doubt  with  the  advice  of  Mr.  Kerwin,  of  selecting 
the  new  books. 

Among  the  books  that  the  boy  read  to  his  father 
and  by  himself,  in  these  years  before  he  entered  his 
teens,  were  the  Chambers's  Information  before  men- 
tioned, Adam  Smith's  Wealth  of  Nations,  Drum- 
mond's  Natural  Law  in  the  Spiritual  World,  Science 
and  the  Bible,  and,  of  course,  as  his  family  were 
strict  Presbyterians,  the  Bible  itself.  His  father 


THE  COBBLER'S  SHOP  35 

loved  to  debate,  but  gloried  in  having  his  facts  veri- 
fied by  the  best  authorities.  A  controversy  involving 
theology,  politics,  or  philosophy  was  to  him  the  very 
breath  of  his  nostrils.  When  he  met  with  a  neighbor, 
friend,  or  any  one  who  was  as  opinionated  as  himself, 
an  argument  was  sure  to  follow,  and  he  liked  to  have 
his  son  at  hand  to  prove  his  points. 

"Wullie,"  he  would  say,  "what  was  it  we  read 
about  that  last  night?" 

And  "  Wullie"  was  always  ready  with  statistics  and 
facts.  Mr.  Wilson  feels  that  this  was  good  literary 
training  and  had  a  stimulating  effect  upon  his  mind. 
His  naturally  good  memory  was  strengthened  by  his 
father's  dependence  on  him  to  verify  the  statements 
and  quotations  used  by  him  in  his  arguments.  It  is 
doubtless  true  that  his  knowledge  of  these  subjects 
was  a  matter  of  memory,  with  only  a  limited  rational 
understanding  of  them.  But  even  so,  is  it  not  re- 
markable that  a  child  of  ten  or  twelve  could  so  file 
these  deep  matters  in  his  mind  as  to  be  able  to  draw 
upon  them  at  will  upon  the  request  of  his  father? 

Later,  as  his  mental  faculties  developed  to  a  greater 
extent,  he  continued  his  reading  along  economic  lines 
and  became  a  serious  student  of  economic  and  labor 
conditions.  That  study  he  has  kept  through  his  life 
and  has  combined  it  with  a  general  knowledge  of 
literature,  so  that  today  he  would  pass  in  any  gather- 
ing of  cultured  people  as  a  man  of  liberal  education. 
With  his  other  reading  he  also  became  familiar  with 
the  works  of  Scott  and  Dickens,  and  with  the  poets 
Burns,  Shelley,  Campbell,  Cowper,  Wordsworth,  and 
Tennyson.  He  calls  Burns  his  favorite  poet,  and  he 
himself  has  a  poetic  gift,  as  is  evidenced  by  his  volume 


36  W.  B.  WILSON 

of  poems  called  "Memories."  He  does  not  claim  to 
have  much  knowledge  of  modern  novels,  as  he  has  had 
little  time  to  read  them,  being  so  occupied  in  selecting 
for  his  library  the  books  that  he  required  for  his 
studies, — books  of  history,  poetry,  and  economics. 

At  the  age  of  fourteen  William  organized  a  debat- 
ing society  among  the  boys,  where  they  no  doubt  dis- 
cussed and  decided  the  great  questions  of  the  day 
with  as  much  authority  and  solemnity  as  their  elders. 
This  initiation  into  the  cobbler's  shop  lyceum  was  the 
real  start  of  W.  B.  Wilson's  education.  He  never 
forgot  or  ceased  to  be  grateful  to  this  teacher  shoe- 
maker. Mr.  Kerwin  has  been  dead  for  many  years, 
but  Mr.  Wilson's  first  official  act  after  taking  the 
oath  of  office  as  Secretary  of  Labor  in  1912  was  to 
appoint  as  his  private  secretary  the  son  of  the  shoe- 
maker, Hugh  L.  Kerwin,  who  had  also  served  as  his 
secretary  in  the  Sixty-second  Congress,  during  which 
Mr.  Wilson  was  chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Labor, 
House  of  Representatives. 

One  has  only  to  hear  Secretary  Wilson  make  a 
speech  on  any  subject  to  realize  that  his  early  train- 
ing in  debate,  though  irregular,  has  served  him  well. 
He  makes  his  points  with  logical  precision  and  delivers 
them  with  telling  and  convincing  force.  His  father 
was  considerably  worried  about  his  talented  son's  loss 
of  an  opportunity  for  a  school  education  by  having 
to  go  to  work  in  the  mines  so  young;  but  nobly  the 
boy  overcame  this  handicap.  He  modestly  says  of 
himself : 

"If  I  have  managed  to  get  on  in  the  world  to  any 
extent,  it  affords  the  best  possible  evidence  that  this 
is  a  country  in  which  opportunity  lies  in  every  man's 
path." 


THE  COBBLER'S  SHOP  37 

The  saying  is  often  quoted:  "The  world  owes 
every  man  a  living."  Secretary  Wilson  put  it  thus: 
"The  world  owes  every  man  the  opportunity  to  make 
a  living. ' ' 

I  owe  a  great  deal  to  Mr.  Wilson  for  helping  me 
to  understand  human  nature.  As  Director  General 
of  the  Information  and  Education  Service  of  the  De- 
partment of  Labor,  it  was  my  duty  to  prepare  posters, 
bulletins,  and  other  publicity,  which  went  to  the  mills, 
factories,  and  shipyards,  for  the  purpose  of  increasing 
production.  Whenever  it  was  possible,  I  took  the 
copy  to  'Secretary  Wilson  to  criticise.  It  was  a  long 
time  before  I  was  able  to  get  the  correct  point  of 
view.  For  instance,  the  Secretary  insisted  that  we 
should  use  the  word  "we"  instead  of  the  word  "you, " 
never  saying  "You  should  produce  more,"  but  "We 
should  produce  more."  He  insisted  that  it  is  very 
poor  psychology  to  scold,  but  that  rather  we  should 
enthuse. 

"There  is  always  something  good  we  can  find,"  he 
would  say,  "and  why  not  find  that  good  thing  and 
praise,  rather  than  hunt  for  the  opposite  and  criticise 
it  ?  We  can  make  headway  much  faster  by  enthusing 
over  the  good  than  by  criticising  the  bad." 

The  Secretary's  psychology  applied  not  only  to 
words  but  also  to  pictures.  At  one  time  we  had  an 
artist  painting  industrial  pictures  for  use  in  colored 
posters.  There  was  one  picture  of  a  workingman 
and  a  soldier  shaking  hands,  which  was  selected  by 
the  heads  of  the  different  bureaus  as  the  best  of  the 
lot.  It  truly  was  a  most  appealing  picture.  When 
the  Secretary  saw  it,  he  at  once  shook  his  head  and 
said; 


38  W.  B.  WILSON 

"I  don't  like  those  overalls." 

"Why,"  I  asked,  "don't  workmen  like  to  be  shown 
in  overalls?" 

"Yes,"  replied  the  Secretary,  "workmen  like  to 
be  shown  in  overalls,  but  the  overalls  must  be  whole, 
not  torn.  Working  people  don't  like  to  be  seen  in 
rags  any  more  than  the  rest  of  us.  Besides,  holes 
Bnd  torn  places  are  a  reflection  on  the  women  folks 
at  home." 


CHAPTER  VI 

WHAT  A  MINE  Is  LIKE 

AN  UNDERGROUND  forest  becomes  an  underground 
city — that  is  the  evolution  of  a  coal  mine.  For  city 
it  certainly  is,  with  streets  and  passages — often  on 
different  levels — for  the  conveying  of  the  cars  of  coal 
and  supplies,  and  the  journeying  of  the  miners  to 
their  respective  places.  In  an  old  pit  near  Newcastle, 
England,  there  are  no  less  than  fifty  miles  of  pas- 
sages, and  our  Pennsylvania  mines  can  excel  this.  To 
think  that  many,  perhaps  most,  of  these  excavated 
roads  are  the  result  of  hand  labor,  stroke  on  stroke! 

In  digging  out  the  coal,  or  undercutting,  as  the 
first  process  is  called,  the  miner  must  sit,  crouch,  or 
even  lie  in  an  uncomfortable  position  for  hours,  wield- 
ing his  pick  to  get  out  the  coal.  Machines  have  been 
invented  for  cutting  coal  when  found  under  certain 
conditions, — one  machine  originated  in  America  in 
1887,  which  is  more  widely  used  here  than  in  England, 
where  a  different  type  is  used.  But  even  where  ma- 
chines are  employed  the  'beginning  must  usually  be 
made  by  hand,  and  in  many  places  it  is  not  feasible 
to  use  the  machines.  Certainly  the  invention. of  a 
machine  in  1887  was  of  no  use  to  young  William  and 
his  father  in  their  arduous  work ;  in  fact,  even  today 
no  machines  are  used  in  the  Arnot  mines.  Whatever 
the  work  or  the  manner  in  which  the  mining  is  done, 
the  fact  remains  that  any  employment  that  keeps 
the  worker  underground  is  disagreeable,  dangerous, 
and  a  menace  to  the  health. 


40  W.  B.  WILSON 

The  mine  that  little  William  Wilson  worked  in  was 
not  better  or  worse  than  others  of  its  kind.  All  mines 
are  full  of  dangers,  and  fifty  years  ago  there  were  not 
many  of  the  safety  inventions  that  have  since  been  in 
use.  Dangerous  gases  are  confined  underground,  and 
digging  for  coal  frees  them.  Many  of  these  gases  are 
intensely  inflammable,  light  is  necessary  for  the  miner 
to  carry  on  his  work,  hence  the  danger  of  explosions 
is  great.  One  of  the  greatest  inventions  connected 
with  mining  is  that  of  the  safety  lamp,  invented 
in  1815  by  Sir  Humphrey  Davy.  With  the  improve- 
ments that  have  since  been  made  in  such  lamps,  it 
is  possible  for  the  miners,  if  careful,  to  be  compar- 
atively safe,  so  far  as  explosions  are  concerned.  The 
slightest  breath  of  an  open  light  upon  the  dangerous 
gases  is  sufficient  to  cause  them  to  explode,  and  then 
partitions  are  burned  away,  smoke  and  fire  roll 
through  the  passages,  pushing  their  way  up  the  shaft 
and  telling  the  workers  above  that  their  fellows  are 
being  suffocated  or  burned  alive.  At  such  times  the 
men  show  their  heroism,  many  cases  of  most  extraor- 
dinary sacrifice  of  life  to  save  others  being  told  in 
connection  with  mine  accidents. 

There  is  always  the  danger  of  flood.  An  under- 
ground stream  or  spring  may  be  suddenly  tapped  and 
the  water  will  pour  through  the  passages,  catching 
unawares  the  hapless  workmen  and  carrying  them  to 
their  death.  Many  mines  have  to  keep  pumps  going 
all  the  time.  Even  when  the  miner  starts  in  on  his 
day's  work,  he  puts  himself  in  peril,  for  in  going  down 
the  shaft  in  the  cage  he  trusts  himself  to  the  chains 
and  ropes  which  lower  the  cage,  and  they  may  give 
way  and  precipitate  him  to  the  floor  of  the  mine. 


WHAT  A  MINE  IS  LIKE  41 

Another  danger  is  that  which  little  William  experi- 
enced when  a  prop  gave  way  and  he  was  hurled  under 
the  debris.  Rules  are  very  strict  in  most  mines  re- 
garding the  placing  of  props  to  hold  up  the  ceiling  of 
the  mine,  but  men  working  constantly  in  the  presence 
of  danger  become  accustomed  to  it  and  grow  careless  of 
precautions  and  often  do  not  observe  the  rules.  Some- 
times, indeed,  such  accidents  are  absolutely  unpre- 
ventable. 

Necessarily,  the  air  in  a  mine  must  be  close,  foul, 
and  poisonous,  even  though  not  directly  inflammable. 
The  pumping  of  fresh  air  into  mines  and  the  ex- 
traction of  the  bad  air,  its  foulness  increased  by  the 
breath  and  exhalations  of  the  perspiring  workers,  is 
a  serious  problem,  and  many  and  various  have  been 
the  attempts  at  its  solution.  Usually  systems  are  used 
with  two  shafts  or  wells,  called  respectively  the  upcast 
and  the  downcast.  If  there  is  a  shaft  of  any  kind  at 
each  end  of  a  mine,  with  connecting  passages,  a  rough 
kind  of  ventilation  or  circulation  will  necessarily  re- 
sult, but  this  will  not  affect  the  side  passages  and 
chambers  not  directly  on  this  main  avenue. 

One  plan  which  seems  to  give  universal  satisfaction 
is  to  have  a  specially  constructed  chamber  at  the  bot- 
tom of  the  upcast  in  which  is  an  immense  furnace  in 
which  a  fire  is  kept  constantly  burning.  The  column 
of  air  above  this  furnace  becomes  rarefied  and  ascends, 
while  the  cooler  air  below  rushes  in  and  spreads  itself 
in  all  directions  to  take  the  place  of  the  bad  air.  Ven- 
tilation fans  for  changing  the  air  have  also  been 
brought  to  a  great  degree  of  perfection.  But  by  any 
method,  a  strong  current  of  air  would  naturally  take 
the  shortest  and  most  direct  course  from  entrance  to 


42  W.  B.  WILSON 

exit,  not  penetrating  the  many  offshoots  from  the 
main  passage.  Therefore,  there  must  be  a  system  of 
barriers  and  tight  closing  doors  in  such  a  way  that  the 
fresh  air  must  traverse  all  the  windings  and  penetrate 
every  part  of  the  mine.  In  order  that  this  current 
may  be  guided  along  the  passages  where  it  is  intended 
it  should  go,  many  boys  are  employed  to  open  the  door 
to  all  comers  and  carefully  close  them  after  all  have 
passed  through.  These  boys  are  called  trappers. 
There  they  sit,  in  semi-darkness,  with  nothing  to  oc- 
cupy them  except  when  the  welcome  call  of  a  wagoner 
or  other  workman  gives  them  a  moment's  diversion 
and  companionship.  I  well  remember  passing  through 
these  doors  in  the  Arnot  mine  in  which  William 
worked. 

Dry  coal  dust  is  liable  to  explosive  action.  Frequent 
watering  is  necessary  to  prevent  such  explosion.  Yet 
the  more  perfect  the  system  of  ventilation,  the  more 
will  all  the  moisture  be  dried  up,  and  the  more  danger- 
ously inflammable  will  this  coal  dust  become.  In  any 
case,  the  miners  have  to  breathe  this  dust  as  it  rises 
and  their  lungs  are  filled  with  it,  so  that  it  adds  to  the 
danger  of  the  pulmonary  trouble  which  is  so  common 
among  this  class  of  workers. 

The  fact  remains,  however,  that,  in  spite  of  all  the 
precautions  that  have  been  and  may  be  taken,  includ- 
ing the  introduction  of  the  most  scientific  and  im- 
proved appliances  for  the  safety  of  the  miner,  his  task, 
working  perhaps  thousands  of  feet  below  ground, 
continues  to  be  a  frightfully  hard  and  dangerous  one. 
Although  the  most  terrible  death  tolls  are  usually  due 
to  explosions,  which  happen  only  occasionally  on  a 
large  scale,  many  more  workers  are  receiving  fatal  in- 


WHAT  A  MINE  IS  LIKE  43 

juries  through  the  falling  roofs  and  sides  of  seams  in 
the  mines.  It  is  said  that  not  a  single  day  passes 
throughout  the  year  without  seeing  the  death  of  at 
least  one  miner,  and  that  the  average  number  of  deaths 
every  day  of  every  year  is  thirty  and  upward. 

More  miners  are  employed  in  American  mines  than 
are  needed  for  getting  out  the  necessary  quantity. 
Therefore  some  must  be  laid  off  at  times.  It  is  said 
that  miners  work,  on  an  average,  only  two  hundred 
and  twelve  days  in  the  year.  However  fortunate  this 
may  be  for  their  health,  it  is  readily  seen  that  they 
must  be  idle  the  remainder  of  the  time.  Mining  com- 
munities are  usually  in  a  remote  section  where  it  is 
difficult  for  a  miner  to  obtain  other  work  to  do  when 
not  occupied  in  the  mine,  even  if  he  were  fitted  to  do 
anything  else.  This  enforced  idleness,  without  pay, 
of  course  brings  increased  suffering  to  himself  and  his 
family.  The  miner  is  reckoned  on  a  par  with  the 
railroad  employee  as  regards  danger,  and  next  to  the 
structural  iron  worker,  who  is  listed  in  the  extra 
hazardous  callings. 

The  life  of  the  miner  was  summed  up  by  the  late 
President  John  Mitchell  of  the  United  Mine  Workers 
(the  body  of  which  Mr.  Wilson  was  Secretary  and 
Treasurer)  in  these  words: 

"First,  the  boy  of  eight  or  ten  is  sent  to  the  breaker 
to  pick  the  slate  and  other  impurities  from  the  coal 
which  has  been  brought  up  from  the  mine ;  from  there 
he  is  promoted  and  becomes  a  door  boy,  working  in 
the  mine;  as  he  grows  older  and  stronger  he  is  ad- 
vanced to  the  position  and  pay  of  a  laborer ;  there  he 
gains  the  experience  which  secures  him  a  place  as 
miner's  helper;  and  as  he  acquires  skill  and  strength 


44  W.  B.  WILSON 

he  becomes  a  full-fledged  miner.  If  he  is  fortunate 
enough  to  escape  the  falls  of  rock  and  coal  he  may  re- 
tain his  position  as  a  miner  for  a  number  of  years; 
but  as  age  creeps  on  and  he  is  attacked  by  some  of  the 
many  diseases  incident  to  work  in  the  mines,  he  makes 
way  for  those  younger  and  more  vigorous  following 
him  up  the  ladder  whose  summit  he  has  reached.  He 
then  starts  on  the  descent,  going  back  to  become  a 
miner's  helper,  then  a  mine  laborer,  now  door-boy; 
and  when  old  and  decrepit,  he  finally  returns  to  th» 
breaker  where  he  started  as  a  child,  earning  the  same 
wages  as  are  received  by  the  little  urchins  working  at 
his  side." 

A  pitiful  life  story  indeed,  and  one  which  might 
have  been  that  of  Mr.  Wilson,  had  it  not  been  for  his 
indomitable  will,  his  unusual  mental  gifts,  and  his 
great  love  and  sympathy  for  his  fellow  workers 
coupled  with  his  desire  to  help  them. 

Frequent  agitation  regarding  the  making  of  Child 
Labor  Laws  has  not  materially  affected  the  child 
workers  in  the  mines.  Nominally,  no  boy  under  the 
age  of  twelve  and  no  woman  or  girl  of  any  age  shall 
be  employed  or  permitted  to  be  in  the  workings  of  any 
bituminous  coal  mine  for  the  purpose  of  employment. 
Great  numbers  of  such  children  are,  however,  em- 
ployed in  the  anthracite  region.  Although  they  are 
all  supposed  to  be  over  twelve,  many  of  them  are  un- 
der that  age.  There  are  the  "breaker  boys"  who  sit 
all  day  in  little  seats — a  day  from  seven  o'clock  till 
six,  with  a  half-hour  at  noon — picking  out  slate,  dirt, 
and  rock  from  the  coal  as  it  passes  through  the  chutes. 

The  breakers  are  very  cold  in  winter,  having  no 
heating  facilities,  save  sometimes  a  few  steam  pipes, 


WHAT  A  MINE  IS  LIKE  45 

usually  without  steam.  The  clouds  of  dust  are  inces- 
sant and  very  irritating  to  the  eyes  and  throat.  Some 
inhuman  fathers — for  not  always  is  the  necessity  so 
great  as  in  the  case  of  little  William  Wilson — even 
compel  their  little  daughters  to  join  the  boys  in  this 
dangerous  work.  Some  of  the  machines  in  the  break- 
ers are  so  simple  that  a  child  can  run  them  as  well  as 
a  grown  person.  But  think  of  the  little  children  de- 
prived of  light,  air,  safety,  schooling,  home  care — 
everything  that  we  consider  a  child's  birthright  until 
he  is  well  beyond  the  age  when  these  little  toilers  are 
earning  the  pittance  that  ekes  out  the  scanty  income  of 
the  family. 

But  what  of  conditions  above  ground?  Do  these 
miners  have  a  comfortable  home  in  which  to  spend 
their  hours  of  rest?  Alas,  one  need  only  go  through 
the  average  mining  town  to  see  that  their  home  life  is 
only  a  shade  better  than  their  mine  life.  The  com- 
pany tenement  is  still  found  in  the  mining  towns. 
The  owners  claim  that  it  is  necessary  for  them  to  pro- 
vide these  homes,  as  otherwise  the  miners  would  have 
no  place  to  live.  Rows  of  unpainted  houses,  each  con- 
taining only  two  or  three  rooms,  almost  exactly  alike, 
flimsy  and  unattractive,  blackened  by  coal  dust  and 
weather-beaten  by  storms — this  is  a  mining  town. 
They  are  built  of  the  cheapest  materials  and  lack  the 
most  necessary  conveniences.  The  water  supply  is 
often  insufficient,  and  unsanitary  conditions  add  to 
the  dangers  of  the  miner's  life.  Exorbitant  rents  are 
charged  for  these  shacks.  Barely  is  there  any  yard 
in  front,  but  in  the  rear  may  be  a  small  space  which 
sometimes  shows  an  attempt  at  a  vegetable  garden. 
Since  Mr.  Wilson  claims  that  he  learned  something 


46  W.  B.  WILSON 

from  his  father  in  amateur  gardening,  the  Wilsons 
must  have  been  ambitious  in  that  direction.  There 
are  some  shining  exceptions  to  this  treatment  of  mine 
workers  in  the  matter  of  housing,  and  the  company 
tenement  system  shows  the  greatest  improvement  in 
the  anthracite  regions  where  the  miners'  organizations 
are  strongest.  Young  William  Wilson  and  his  fellow 
members  of  the  Labor  Union  were  instrumental  in 
bringing  about  these  changes  in  the  living  conditions 
of  the  workers. 

When  the  Wilsons  were  working  in  the  Pennsyl- 
vania mines,  they  were  obliged  to  get  their  supplies 
in  the  company  stores.  These  stores  charged  higher 
prices  than  regular  stores  in  other  places,  and  even 
if  an  independent  store  was  started  in  a  mining  town 
it  was  soon  put  out  of  business  by  the  mine  owners. 
Finally,  by  agitation,  protests,  and  strikes,  the  com- 
pany stores  in  this  part  of  Pennsylvania  were  obliged 
to  reduce  their  prices.  This  meant  a  steady  decline  in 
their  profits  and  eventually  the  whole  system  of  com- 
pany stores  was  given  up.  They  still  exist  in  some 
places,  but  prices  are  not  so  much  in  excess  of  those 
in  privately  owned  stores. 

Yet,  despite  all  these  lamentable  conditions  and  the 
fact  that  every  time  the  miner  descends  into  the  pit 
he  is  taking  his  life  into  his  hands,  coal  must  be  had, — 
modern  life  demands  it  and  some  one  must  supply  it. 
Yes, — it  stuns  one  to  think  what  would  happen  to 
the  modern  city,  like  New  York  or  Chicago,  if  the 
coal  supply  should  fail  some  winter — there  would  be 
no  light,  no  water,  no  transportation ;  hence  no  food, 
no  clothing!  Realizing  this,  the  miner  turns  phi- 
losopher. He  goes  to  his  daily  work  with  a  cheery 


WHAT  A  MINE  IS  LIKE  47 

smile,  and  takes  his  life  with  its  miseries  as  he  finds 
it.  He  deserves  far  better  than  he  gets.  What  chance 
has  he  for  physical,  mental,  or  spiritual  improvement 
in  his  environment  ?  When  Mr.  Wilson  was  Secretary 
of  the  United  Mine  Workers,  he  wrote,  regarding  the 
miner's  life,  as  follows: 

"If  there  is  any  man  in  existence  who  is  entitled  to 
all  the  necessaries  and  as  many  of  the  luxuries  as  he 
cares  to  partake  of,  it  is  the  miner,  who,  taking  his 
life  in  one  hand  and  his  dinner  pail  in  the  other, 
kisses  his  wife  and  little  ones  good-bye  in  the  morning 
and  goes  forth  with  a  strong  heart  to  meet  the  dangers 
of  a  most  dangerous  occupation,  with  the  chances 
great  that  he  may  never  meet  his  loved  ones  again. 
Not  only  does  he  meet  the  dangers  that  come  to  him- 
self in  the  regular  pursuit  of  his  labor,  but  no  man 
ever  heard  of  a  miner  shrinking  from  the  danger  of 
rescuing  his  fellow  men  in  distress.  When  accident 
has  befallen  any  of  their  number,  when  a  caving  in  of 
the  roof,  a  flooding  of  the  mines,  or  an  explosion  of  fire 
damp  has  cut  off  all  avenues  of  escape,  the  courage  of 
the  miner  asserts  itself,  and  he  will  dare  any  danger, 
take  any  risk,  to  reach  the  entombed  men  or  recover 
their  bodies,  if  dead." 

In  one  of  these  accidents,  of  which  Mr.  Wilson 
modestly  told,  it  is  evident  that  he  showed  the  same 
self-sacrifice  that  he  praised  in  others.  The  alarm 
was  sounded  that  a  comrade  by  the  name  of  William 
Hogan  was  buried  at  some  place  in  the  mine  beneath 
the  black  avalanche. 

"I  started  for  the  rescue,"  said  Mr.  Wilson,  "with 
two  other  fellows,  and  the  shelling  of  the  rock  (we 


48  W.  B.  WILSON 

called  it  'shailing')  was  like  the  booming  of  a  cannon 
as  on  and  on  we  dug  our  way!" 

"You  found  him,  the  chap  named  William  Hogan?" 
asked  a  listener. 

"Oh,  yes,  we  found  him.  He  was  sitting  on  the 
floor  of  the  mine,  his  knees  drawn  up  into  his  ribs.  I 
thought  once  I  heard  a  voice  calling,  '  Hurry,  boys, 
for  God's  sake !'  but  when  we  really  found  him,  I  did 
not  think  it  had  been  possible  for  him  to  have 
called." 

'  *  You  revived  him  ? ' ' 

"Oh,  no — he  was  dead." 

Such  accidents  are  often  caused  by  what  is  called 
"robbing  the  pillars."  The  pillars  of  coal,  really  the 
trunks  of  prehistoric  trees,  are  originally  left  to  sup- 
port the  roof  of  the  mine.  As  mining  progresses, 
these  pillars,  beginning  at  the  farthest  back  in  the 
mine,  are  taken  down,  and  wooden  props  are  put  in 
their  places.  In  the  above  case  the  men  had  been 
sent  far  in  to  cut  away  the  stump  of  a  pillar  which 
remained,  when  all  at  once  the  alarm  was  given  that 
the  roof  was  starting  to  fall.  The  other  miners 
escaped,  but  William  Hogan  was  caught  and  lost  his 
life.  It  was  a  narrow  escape,  too,  for  the  rescuers. 


CHAPTER  Vtl 

tWOBKINQ  FOR  THE  UNION 

BY  THE  time  William  was  thirteen  he  was  a  full- 
fledged  miner,  when  most  lads  of  that  age  are  playing 
baseball,  or  if  obliged  to  earn  anything,  are  just  sell- 
ing papers,  running  errands,  or  doing  some  other  light 
work.  At  this  time  he  became  half  member  of  a  labor 
union  and  has  been  associated  with  unions  ever  since. 
As  Secretary  of  Labor,  he  is  a  union  man  and  has  his 
card.  When  fourteen  years  of  age  he  was  elected 
secretary  of  the  local  union. 

For  some  reason  his  father  went  in  search  of  em- 
ployment about  this  time,  and  the  care  of  the  family 
was  virtually  placed  on  the  boy's  shoulders.  Not 
until  he  was  sixteen  could  he  be  admitted  to  full  mem- 
bership in  the  union,  and  after  that  he  became  a 
journeyman  miner.  A  stanza  of  his  poem,  "The  Coal 
Miner,"  the  first  stanza  of  which  has  already  been 
quoted,  is  appropriate  to  this  period  of  his  life : 

A  youthful-like  personage,  wiry  and  strong, 
Deep-chested,  broad-shouldered,  limbs  supple  and  long, 
The  coal  seems  today  to  be  flying  more  thick 
Than  ever  before  from  the  point  of  his  pick. 
Fast  flows  the  sweat  from  each  pore  of  his  face, 
As  blow  after  blow  brings  the  coal  from  its  place. 
What  pride  in  his  voice  as  he  says:     "By  the  way, 
I  want  you  to  know  I  am  sixteen  today 
And  I  want  a  '  full  turn '  as  a  miner." 

After  becoming  secretary  of  the  local  union  in  1876, 
his  activities  in  the  mines,  as  a  trade  unionist,  at- 

49 


50  !W.  B.  WILSON 

tracted  attention  outside,  and  the  mine  owners  began 
to  take  notice.  By  the  time  he  was  eighteen  he  was 
marked  as  a  dangerous  man,  and  it  was  not  long  be- 
fore he  was  most  unjustly  boycotted  by  the  mine  own- 
ers. He  was  compelled  to  go  from  mine  to  mine  to  get 
employment,  only  to  find  that  he  was  blacklisted,  as  no 
company  would  hire  him.  He  was,  therefore,  obliged 
to  quit  the  mines  and  look  about  for  other  work. 
He  drifted  West,  and  became  fireman  on  the  Illinois 
Central  Railroad  for  a  time.  He  worked  in  saw  mills 
and  in  lumber  yards.  He  worked  in  a  printing  office  in 
Blossburg,  near  his  home,  setting  type  on  a  news- 
paper. With  characteristic  adaptability,  he  made  this 
job  his  teacher  in  punctuation  and  capitalization,  and 
in  grammatical  construction.  Everything  that  came 
William's  way  was  made  to  serve  the  purpose  of  in- 
struction, if  it  could  possibly  be  turned  in  that  direc- 
tion. All  these  experiences  at  different  jobs  brought 
him  in  touch  with  trades  other  than  mining,  and  made 
him  more  sympathetic  with  the  workers  in  all  lines. 

Meanwhile,  at  the  age  of  twenty-one,  he  was  mar- 
ried, June  7, 1883,  to  Miss  Agnes  Williamson,  who  was 
born  within  a  few  miles  of  his  old  home  in  Scotland. 
Eleven  children  have  been  born  to  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Wil- 
son, of  whom  nine  are  living.  He  still  failed  to  get 
regular  employment,  and  the  little  home  of  the  newly 
married  couple  saw  many  hardships  and  deprivations. 
It  is  said  there  are  few  great  men  who  have  not  at 
some  time  or  other  seen  the  bottom  of  the  meal  barrel. 
The  future  Secretary  of  Labor  saw  it  very  often  dur- 
ing these  days. 

For  nearly  twenty  years  this  period  of  irregular 
employment  lasted  and  Mr.  Wilson  continued  his 


WORKING  FOR  THE  UNION  51 

activities  as  a  union  leader.  He  kept  up  his  interest 
in  the  miners'  organization,  encouraged  them  to  hold 
together,  and  inspired  them  with  his  own  enthusiasm. 
He  proved  to  them  his  ability  as  a  leader  and  his  ab- 
solute integrity  as  a  man.  Very  few  of  the  mining 
towns  had  as  high  a  standard  of  living  as  had  Arnot, 
with  its  people  of  Scotch  and  English  ancestry. 
Throughout  the  country,  out  into  the  scattered  dis- 
tricts where  families,  grown  men  and  women,  boys 
and  girls,  were  herded  together  in  degrading  prox- 
imity, in  ignorance  and  sickness  and  poverty,  Wilson 
traveled.  He  aroused  them  out  of  their  indifference, 
stirring  whatever  might  be  good  in  them,  inspiring 
them  with  something  of  his  own  indomitable  courage, 
and  organizing  them  into  unions  where  they  could 
make  effectual  resistance  against  unusual  conditions. 
Once  he  was  tricked  aboard  a  train  by  agents  of  the 
mine  owners  and  taken  to  Cumberland,  Maryland. 
Here  he  was  thrown  into  jail  on  the  indefinite  charge 
of  conspiracy,  but  in  three  days  they  were  forced  to 
release  him.  In  one  strike  they  tried  to  bribe  him,  in 
another  to  kidnap  him.  They  arrested  him  for  "con- 
tempt ' '  in  West  Virginia.  They  blacklisted  him  and 
they  enjoined  him.  He  escaped  the  kidnappers,  he 
laughed  at  the  blacklist,  he  defied  the  injunction.  * '  An 
injunction,"  he  said,  "that  restrains  me  from  furnish- 
ing food  to  hungry  men,  women,  and  children,  when 
I  have  in  my  possession  the  means  to  aid  them,  will 
be  violated  by  me  until  the  necessity  for  providing 
food  has  been  removed  or  the  corporeal  power  of  the 
court  overwhelms  me.  I  will  treat  it  as  I  would  an 
order  of  the  court  to  stop  breathing."  The  bottom 
of  the  meal  barrel  must  have  been  visible  on  more 
than  one  occasion  in  those  days. 


52  iW.  B.  WILSON 

Once,  as  a  result  of  his  activities,  he  was  evicted 
from  his  house.  That  convinced  him  that  to  be  in- 
dependent of  other  men  he  must  own  his  own  home. 
In  1896  a  man  in  Arnot  rented  him  a  hundred  acres 
of  land,  so  he  undertook  to  farm  this  land,  and,  with 
characteristic  Scotch  thrift,  to  save  money  to  buy  it. 
Under  his  father's  direction,  he  had  done  some  am- 
ateur gardening,  though  one  can  hardly  imagine  how 
he  got  time  for  this,  with  the  long  hours  of  a  day's 
work  in  the  mines.  But  he  bravely  started  in  to  be  a 
farmer.  No  doubt  his  children  all  contributed,  as 
soon  as  they  were  big  enough,  their  share  of  labor  to 
keep  the  little  farm  going. 

While  still  engaged  in  farming  Mr.  Wilson  was 
made  a  "  check  weighman,"  to  weigh  the  coal  in  be- 
half of  the  miners — such  work  being  meant  to  serve 
as  a  check  against  the  weighing  done  by  the  weigh- 
masters  of  the  company. 

During  all  these  stormy  times  Mr.  Wilson  had  a 
growing  family  to  support,  a  mortgage  of  $1,500  on  his 
little  home,  and  never  till  he  was  thirty-six  did  he  earn 
an  average  of  more  than  forty  dollars  a  month.  Some 
months  his  pay  might  reach  as  high  as  eighty  dollars, 
but  there  were  so  many  lean  times  when  it  was  below 
that  the  average  was  kept  down. 

In  1885  Mr.  Wilson  was  one  of  those  who  assisted 
in  establishing  joint  conferences  between  operators 
and  miners,  which  have  developed  the  present  col- 
lective bargaining  system  in  the  coal  mining  industry, 
reducing  strikes  and  improving  the  condition  of  both 
coal  operator  and  miner.  In  1899  he  was  elected 
president  of  the  Central  Division  of  the  Miners' 
Union,  known  as  District  No.  2. 


CHAPTER  VIII 
THE  STRIKE  OF  1899-1900 

THIS  SAME  year,  1899,  in  behalf  of  the  miners  of 
Tioga  County,  Mr.  Wilson  took  charge  of  the  situa- 
tion resulting  from  a  prolonged  lockout.  A  change 
of  managers  of  a  mine  property  and  the  abrogation 
by  the  new  manager  of  the  conference  system,  the 
establishment  of  which  Mr.  Wilson  had  previously 
secured,  resulted  in  a  lockout.  It  was  a  long  and  bitter 
contest,  in  which  Mr.  Wilson,  while  steadily  working 
to  bring  the  opposing  forces  together  and  to  re-estab- 
lish the  conference  plan,  sometimes  lost  the  confidence 
of  some  of  the  more  radical  of  the  men  he  was  lead- 
ing. 

As  his  philosophy  of  labor  is  illustrated  by  the  story 
of  this  strike,  let  me  briefly  tell  of  its  beginning  and 
end.  For  some  years  the  wage-workers  had  the  bene- 
fit of  collective  bargaining.  That  is,  they  had  got  to- 
gether once  a  year  and  appointed  a  committee  to  wait 
upon  the  mine  owners  at  a  conference.  A  new  man- 
ager, however,  announced,  early  in  June,  1899,  that 
the  mines  belonged  to  the  stockholders  of  the  com- 
pany and  that  the  company  was  free  to  operate  them 
exactly  as  it  saw  fit.  Hence  the  manager  would  no 
longer  hold  conferences  with  the  miners,  but  would 
operate  the  mines  as  he  desired  without  reference  to 
the  miners. 

Of  course  this  was  a  great  shock  to  the  miners  and 
especially  to  their  leaders,  who  through  long  years  of 

53 


54  W.  B.  WILSON 

struggle  had  established  the  conference  principle. 
The  miners  and  their  leaders  immediately  met  and 
considered  the  matter.  After  considerable  debate,  the 
following  message  was  sent  to  the  new  manager: 

"We  recognize  that  the  mines  are  the  property  of 
the  stockholders  and  as  such  the  stockholders  are  free 
to  do  with  these  mines  as  they  see  fit  so  long  as  they 
do  not  interfere  with  the  natural  rights  of  others.  We, 
therefore,  regret  to  report  that  the  new  manager  is 
within  his  full  legal  rights  in  refusing  to  confer  with 
us  hereafter.  We,  however,  have  also  concluded  that 
our  bodies  belong  to  us  wage  earners  and  that  we 
are  likewise  free  to  use  these  bodies  as  we  would,  pro- 
vided we  do  not  interfere  with  the  just  rights  of 
others.  The  stockholders  have  decided  that  they  will 
operate  the  mines  only  under  certain  conditions.  We 
have  decided  that  we  will  operate  our  bodies  only  un- 
der certain  conditions.  Apparently  all  of  us  are 
within  our  legal  rights,  whether  stockholders  or  wage 
workers. ' ' 

The  new  manager  thought  that  he  won  a  great  vic- 
tory and  went  home  that  night  congratulating  him- 
self upon  his  shrewdness.  Much  to  his  surprise,  how- 
ever, not  a  man  returned  to  work  the  next  morning. 
That  was  June  18,  1899,  and  not  a  pick  was  raised, 
nor  a  wheel  turned,  nor  did  an  ounce  of  coal  come  out 
of  these  mines  until  March  1,  1900,  a  period  of  over 
eight  months.  During  this  time  the  miners  marched 
every  morning  and  night  up  to  the  mines  and  back 
again  to  their  homes  without  violence  and  without 
causing  any  disturbance  of  any  kind.  Every  morning 
the  manager  came  to  the  mine,  spent  the  day  and  re- 
turned again  at  night.  Both  sides  continued  to  rest 


THE  STRIKE  OF  1899-1900  55 

upon  their  legal  rights,  and  yet  nothing  was  accom- 
plished. Finally  in  February,  1900,  both  sides  saw 
that  no  headway  could  be  made  by  depending  on  legal 
rights.  There  is  nothing  constructive  about  legal 
rights.  Whether  our  interests  are  as  stockholders  or 
as  wage  earners  we  get  on  only  as  we  produce.  In 
production  the  interests  of  both  sides  are  mutual.  The 
only  opportunity  there  is  for  dispute  is  in  connection 
with  how  that  which  has  been  produced  shall  be  di- 
vided. This  must  be  determined  to  the  satisfaction  of 
both  parties  in  order  to  have  more  production.  Such 
determination  can  be  reached  only  by  representatives 
of  both  stockholders  and  wage  workers  sitting  about 
the  council  table  in  conference. 

Mr.  Wilson  became  the  idol  of  the  miners,  on  ac- 
count of  his  work  for  them.  In  1900  they  made  him 
International  Secretary-Treasurer  of  the  United  Mine 
Workers,  when  John  Mitchell  was  made  President. 
During  the  eight  years  that  Mr.  Wilson  held  this 
office  millions  of  dollars  passed  through  his  hands 
without  the  loss  of  a  one-cent  piece.  He  took  charge 
of  a  treasury  of  $16,000  and  turned  over  $1,027,000 
to  his  successor.  This  organization  has  three  million 
members  and  has  done  much  to  better  the  conditions 
of  labor  in  the  mines  throughout  the  country. 

In  the  great  strike  of  1899  and  1900  the  mine  own- 
ers thought  they  could  discredit  him  and  put  him  out 
of  the  labor  movement.  They  offered  him  a  bribe  of 
$1,500  to  desert  the  miners.  He  was  told  it  would  be 
an  act  of  kindness  to  accept  the  money  and  end  the 
long  bitter  struggle ;  he  had  only  to  leave  the  State  on 
urgent  business  and  matters  would  be  adjusted.  The 
miners  need  not  know  he  had  broken  faith  with  them. 


56  W.  B.  WILSON 

Fifteen  Hundred  Dollars  was  the  exact  amount  of  the 
mortgage  on  his  farm,  and  he  and  his  wife  and  eleven 
children  were  destitute,  as  he  had  turned  in  his  pay 
as  Secretary-Treasurer  into  the  strike  fund.  Did  Mr. 
Wilson  yield  to  the  importunities  and  representations 
of  the  mine  owners  ?  He  was  not  even  tempted  by  the 
bait ;  for  answer  he  took  into  his  home  the  families  of 
four  striking  miners  and  shared  with  them  his  meager 
fare. 

Since  that  day,  in  Arnot,  a  day  called  Wilson  Day  is 
set  apart  by  the  miners  as  a  public  holiday.  Stores 
are  closed,  all  business  is  suspended,  the  people  dress 
in  their  best  clothes  and  make  merry  in  honor  of  the 
man  who  has  proved  his  superiority  to  adversity,  his 
ability  to  overcome  obstacles,  and  has  won,  by  merit- 
ing them,  the  respect  and  love  of  an  entire  com- 
munity. 

Between  1886  and  1894  conditions  were  very  bad 
in  Tioga  County.  Several  men  were  discharged  at  the 
various  mines  for  acting  on  committees  or  speaking  in 
favor  of  organized  labor.  W.  B.  Wilson  was  among 
the  number.  He  could  not  get  work  in  any  of  the 
mines  of  the  country,  except  where  the  superintendent 
was  charitably  inclined.  Then  he  would  give  him  a 
place  where  the  air  was  so  bad  that  a  man  could  not 
live  in  it.  A  person  trying  to  work  under  such  con- 
ditions would  often  be  carried  out  by  his  fellow  work-  ' 
men. 

Mr.  Wilson  would  visit  the  mining  towns  for  the 
purpose  of  making  a  labor  speech,  and  could  not  get 
a  building  of  any  kind  to  speak  in,  or  a  person  to  act 
as  chairman  for  him  when  he  spoke  in  the  open  with 
the  heavens  for  a  roof.  After  delivering  his  address 


THE  STRIKE  OF  1899-1900  57 

to  a  few  men  who  would  have  the  courage  to  go  and 
listen  to  him,  he  would  be  obliged  to  walk  to  Bloss- 
burg,  where  he  lived.  Good-intentioned  men  wero 
afraid  of  taking  him  in  for  the  night  f  or»fear  of  being 
discharged. 

After  the  1894  strike  Mr.  Wilson  and  Mr.  John 
Lyons  were  chosen  as  a  committee  from  a  mass  meet- 
ing in  Blossburg  to  go  to  Red  Burn  to  try  and  settle 
a  local  grievance.  On  their  arrival  at  Ralston,  which 
is  at  the  foot  of  the  Red  Burn  plain,  they  met  the 
superintendent  of  the  mines,  Robert  Brownlee,  and 
the  mine  boss,  John  Wright.  The  superintendent  ap- 
peared to  be  pleased  to  see  them,  and  told  Mr.  Wilson 
that  he  was  glad  to  meet  him,  as  he  could  prove  that 
the  strike  had  been  a  mistake.  After  several  hours' 
discussion,  Mr.  Brownlee  admitted  that  he  did  not 
understand  the  mining  situation  as  well  as  he  thought 
he  did,  and  that  Mr.  Wilson  was  right. 

Not  only  do  the  labor  leaders  know  how  to  play  upon 
good  qualities,  such  as  sympathy,  but  they  also  under- 
stand the  force  of  the  bad  qualities,  such  as  jealousy. 
Many  a  corporation  that  has  had  labor  troubles 
really  owes  these  troubles  to  jealousy  within  its  own 
management.  The  employees  have  been  aware  of  this 
jealousy  and  have  fanned  it,  and  on  account  of  it  have 
finally  won. 

This  was  especially  true  in  Mr.  Wilson's  time.  A 
manager  of  the  mines  at  Arnot  was  named  Lyons,  and 
the  head  man  in  New  York  was  named  Hines.  Lyons 
was  continually  trying  to  secure  Hines 's  position, 
while  Hines  was  kept  busy  maneuvering  to  hold  his 
own  place.  The  employees  knew  this,  and  would  ap- 
peal first  to  one  and  then  to  the  other,  playing  upon 
the  jealousy  of  both. 


58  W.  B.  WILSON 

The  crisis  came  in  connection  with  the  introduc- 
tion of  check  weighing.  This  the  men  took  up  with 
Mr.  Lyons,  but  without  success.  Then  they  went  over 
his  head  to  Mr.  Hines  in  New  York,  who  agreed  to 
the  men's  plans.  Lyons,  however,  was  so  provoked 
that  he  refused  to  recognize  Hines 's  orders.  The  men 
then  secured  evidence  for  Hines  that  showed  him  that 
Lyons  had  been  endeavoring  to  undermine  him  right 
along.  The  result  was  that  Lyons  was  fired.  This 
was  a  great  victory  for  Hines  and  the  men. 

Corporations  fail  to  realize  how  much  more  the 
employees  know  about  the  officers  and  foremen  than 
do  the  stockholders.  The  employees  don't  say  much, 
but  they  see  and  hear  a  good  deal.  In  many  instances, 
employees  could  tell  stockholders  why  the  companies 
are  not  earning  more  and  wherein  their  difficulties 
lie.  In  talking  with  Mr.  Wilson  once  regarding  giving 
labor  representation  on  Boards  of  Directors,  he  said : 

" Labor  doesn't  seem  to  be  very  anxious  for  such 
representation,  and  I  am  not  so  keen  for  it  as  are 
many ;  but  I  believe  that  it  would  be  a  wonderful  thing 
for  the  corporations  and  their  stockholders  if  labor 
would  earnestly  take  an  interest  in  such  plans.  I  don 't 
see  how  the  labor  representatives  on  Boards  of 
Directors  could  do  any  harm,  while  I  am  sure  they 
would  give  the  stockholders  a  new  point  of  view  that 
would  be  very  valuable.  Furthermore,  I  believe  that 
in  many  cases  it  would  result  in  much  more  efficient 
officers  and  foremen." 

"Industrial  peace,"  says  Mr.  Wilson,  "is  both  an 
economic  and  sociological  necessity.  It  is  not  an  idle 
dream,  but  a  practical  possibility.  The  chief  require- 
ment in  achieving  it  is  ability  on  the  part  of  those 


THE  STRIKE  OF  1899-1900  59 

dealing  with  issues,  as  they  arise,  to  put  themselves  in 
the  other  fellow's  place;  to  view  the  question  from  all 
sides  faiirly  and  justly." 

"The  reason  why  you  succeed  so,  Mr.  Secretary,  is 
because  you  have  seen  all  sides — you  have  seen  life ! ' ' 
I  remarked  one  day. 

The  Secretary  of  Labor  smiled  his  kindliest,  and 
his  cheeks  glowed  like  the  typical  Scotchman's. 

' '  All  workers, ' '  he  said, —  ' '  all  workers  see  life !  ' ' 

One  doubts  that.  Many  workers  are  machines, 
wound  up  to  go  so  many  hours  per  day  and  (again 
one  recalls  Scripture)  because  there  are  those  who, 
having  eyes,  see  not ! 

But  the  boy  who  was  buried  beneath  the  rock  of 
the  Arnot  mines  when  he  was  nine  years  old,  the  man 
who  led  the  search  for  William  Hogan,  the  entombed 
miner,  and  the  man  who  spent  years  of  his  life  ' '  rob- 
bing the  pillars"  of  the  Pennsylvania  coal  mines  does 
know  life,  because  his  keen  blue  eyes  were  not  given 
him  only  to  pick  his  way  through  the  dark  tunnels 
under  the  earth.  He  can  see  September  from  the 
broad  piazzas  of  his  Blossburg  farm  and  sing 

.     .     .    of  the  dusky  shadows  falling  fast, 
A  gloaming  through  the  valley  cast, 

And,  when  the  russet  glow  had  ceased, 

It  awed  to  stillneess  man  and  beast. 
Each  hill  and  valley,  field  and  wood 
Seemed  but  a  mighty  solitude, 
So  calm  and  quiet  the  night  had  grown 
Where  Nature  called  the  scene  her  own. 


CHAPTER  IX 
SOMETHING  ABOUT  FARMING 

W.  B.  WILSON  was  always  known  to  have  good  judg- 
ment. His  reputation  for  giving  a  fair,  unbiased 
opinion  began  when  he  was  in  his  teens.  He  never 
was  moved  by  hate  or  prejudice;  neither  did  he  be- 
come enthusiastic  and  carried  away  with  new  ideas. 
Although  deeply  interested  in  the  labor  movement, 
his  interest  came  from  a  love  for  his  brother  workers 
and  their  families.  He  was  never  a  radical,  but  always 
a  conservative. 

His  judgment  was  appealed  to,  not  only  in  connec- 
tion with  labor  problems,  but  also  in  connection  with 
business  problems.  His  advice  on  "prospects"  was 
eagerly  sought.  If  W.  B.  "Wilson  thought  that  a  cer- 
tain stratum  of  coal  would  pay  for  working,  the  men 
and  money  could  always  be  found  ready  for  making 
the  attempt.  Even  the  rich  mine  owners  liked  to  get 
Wilson 's  opinion  before  opening  up  a  new  vein.  Even 
while  persecuting  him  and  trying  to  discipline  him 
for  his  interest  in  the  unions,  they  would  seek  his  ad- 
vice on  other  matters. 

Arnot,  Wilson's  home  town,  is  a  little  village  all 
owned  by  a  corporation.  It  is  about  five  miles  from 
Blossburg,  a  borough  of  about  2,700  inhabitants. 
About  half  way  between  Arnot  and  Blossburg  there 
are  outcroppings  of  coal.  They  are  clearly  visible  to- 
day. I  have  seen  them  myself  while  tramping  over 
these  pastures.  At  one  time  some  men  got  together 

60 


SOMETHING  ABOUT  FARMING  61 

with  the  idea  of  opening  some  mines  here.  They  con- 
sulted various  people,  among  them  being  W.  B.  Wil- 
son. Every  one  of  these  men  advised  the  opening  of 
the  mine  except  Wilson.  His  report  was  that  the 
veins  were  so  located  that  it  would  not  pay  to  work 
them.  However,  the  property  was  purchased  and  an 
attempt  was  made  at  mining. 

After  a  very  short  time  it  was  found  that  W.  B. 
Wilson's  opinion  had  been  correct,  that  the  property 
was  not  worth  developing.  As  more  or  less  money 
had  been  spent,  and  as  a  farmhouse,  outbuildings,  etc., 
already  existed  on  the  property,  the  owner  went  to 
W.  B.  Wilson  and  said : 

"Wilson,  you  gave  me  good  advice.  You  were  the 
only  man  who  gave  me  good  advice.  This  property 
is  not  worth  developing  for  coal,  but  here  are  one 
hundred  acres.  If  you  wish  to  work  them  as  a  farm,  go 
ahead  and  we  will  share  profits  together."  This  was 
in  the  year  1896.  To  one  like  W.  B.  Wilson,  who  had 
been  for  so  many  years  working  underground  in  the 
mines,  living  only  in  a  stereotyped  shanty  of  the  min- 
ing company,  the  idea  of  being  free  and  living  in  the 
open,  as  God  intended,  greatly  appealed.  He  im- 
mediately moved  his  family  from  Arnot,  about  three 
miles  down  the  road  toward  Blossburg,  to  this  farm. 
The  farmhouse  was  a  humble  'but  comfortable  dwell- 
ing, with  large  rooms  and  a  small  piazza.  The  farm 
was  pretty  hilly,  with  only  a  few  acres  suitable  for 
tilling.  There  were  also  about  forty  acres  that  gave 
a  fair  crop  of  hay.  Most  of  the  land,  however,  was 
not  only  hilly  but  rocky  and  consisted  of  woodland. 
Still,  it  was  near  enough  to  Arnot  for  Wilson  to  work 
in  the  mines  to  eke  out  while  carrying  on  the 


62  W.  B.  WILSON 

farm.  In  this  way,  he  enjoyed  what  he  always 
believed  to  be  an  ideal  condition.  I  refer  to  his  hope 
that  the  time  will  come  when  men  will  be  tied  neither 
to  farms  nor  to  factories,  but  will  work  a  few  months 
on  their  farms  and  then  the  rest  of  the  year  in  fac- 
tories, or  that  people  should  be  so  grouped  in  com- 
munities that  they  can  work,  say,  six  hours  in  the 
factories  and  four  hours  on  the  farm. 

Mr.  Wilson  believed  that  the  isolated  farm,  where 
the  family  works  from  early  morning  till  late  at  night, 
stranded  away  from  all  intellectual  and  social  life, 
must  go.  He  also  believed  that  the  factory,  where 
men  and  women  are  mere  machines  from  morning  till 
night  doing  one  thing,  must  go.  Neither  form  of  life 
can  develop  real  Americans,  as  neither  allows  true 
self-expression  and  the  growth  of  those  vital  qualities 
which  make  up  life.  The  conditions  for  which  we 
should  aim  are  to  have  each  family  have  its  own  few 
acres  and  have  these  grouped  about  a  community, 
with  its  social  and  intellectual  life,  but  to  have  enough 
factories  in  this  community  so  that  the  people  would 
not  be  dependent  on  the  products  of  the  soil. 

Here  again  the  Secretary  illustrates  his  faculty  for 
weighing  and  adjusting.  He  looked  upon  everything 
as  having  some  good  and  yet,  if  carried  too  far, 
capable  of  great  evil.  The  old  adage,  "All  work  and 
no  play  makes  Jack  a  dull  boy,"  he  applied  to  all  de- 
partments of  life,  whether  of  the  farm  or  of  the  fac- 
tory. The  development  of  mankind  must  come 
through  a  mutual  intermingling  of  the  farm  life  and 
the  factory,  with  home  as  a  center. 

But  to  return  to  his  experience  at  farming  Per- 
haps I  can  best  tell  the  story  by  quoting  him  as  he 


SOMETHING  ABOUT  FARMING  63 

tolfl  it  to  me.  Let  me,  however,  first  say  that  from  my 
knowledge  of  the  farm  I  don't  see  how  he  ever  got  on  as 
well  as  he  did.  If  W.  B.  Wilson  was  able  even  to  make 
a  living  for  himself  on  that  broken  and  barren  tract, 
b.e  certainly  deserved  the  greatest  praise.  Moreover, 
when  one  considers  that  he  had  spent  so  much  of  life 
in  the  mines  and  knew  nothing  whatever  of  farming, 
the  wonder  is  all  the  greater.  This  is  the  way  he  told 
£he  story: 

' '  I  had  had  no  experience  whatever  in  farming,  al- 
though as  a  boy,  under  my  father's  instruction,  I  had 
(done  some  amateur  gardening.  This,  however,  was 
not  enough  to  deter  me  from  the  attempt.  I  made  an 
arrangement  to  farm  on  shares,  the  owner  of  the  land 
providing  me  with  a  yoke  of  oxen.  The  oxen  had 
jbeen  broken  to  lumbering  and  had  no  acquaintance 
with  the  farming  business. 

' '  I  had  never  driven  an  ox  team,  and  never  save  on 
one  occasion  had  seen  a  team  of  these  animals  driven 
b.y  any  one  else.  When  I  yoked  them  up  and  started 
in  to  plow  I  had  trouble.  They  were  fast  walkers,  be- 
cause of  their  lumbering  experience,  and  it  was  dif- 
ficult to  keep  up  with  them.  I  could  not  keep  the  off 
,ox  going  right.  Although  I  'hawed'  and  'gee'd'  to  the 
best  of  my  ability,  the  furrow  was  a  zigzag.  Finally 
J  said  to  the  oxen :  'Go  as  you  please.  It's  all  got  to 
b.e  plowed,  so  take  it  any  way  you  like. ' 

"The  first  year  I  raised  beans,  because  the  soil  was 
so  run  down  that  it  would  not  produce  anything  else. 
f  had  cows  and  we  made  butter.  We  raised  some 
jchickens;  also,  when  we  got  around  to  it,  potatoes, 
cabbage,  and  other  kinds  of  garden  truck.  Somehow, 
I  managed  to.  get  along  and  gain  a  meager  livelihood. 


64  W.  B.  WILSON 

4 '  Eventually  I  acquired  ownership  of  the  farm.  It 
is  my  home  today,  in  Blossburg,  Pennsylvania, — a 
tract  of  about  a  hundred  acres." 

To  a  visitor  at  his  farm  Mr.  Wilson  said : 

"We  farm  our  lawn.  We  have  none  too  much 
land,  and  we  have  deemed  it  better  to  work  the 
good  land  than  to  try  to  keep  up  a  lawn. ' ' 

In  the  stretch  in  front  of  the  house  were  a  patch  of 
corn,  a  patch  of  potatoes,  and  a  field  of  hay. 

The  Secretary  said  his  miner  friends  at  Blossburg 
and  Arnot  were  fond  of  joking  him  about  his  farm  and 
the  cliffs  thereon.  Upon  his  return  to  his  home  at  ono 
time  some  of  his  friends  met  him  at  the  station.  Up- 
on his  asking  them  how  things  were,  one  of  them  re- 
plied : 

"Things  are  all  right,  Billy,  except  that  your 
brindle  cow  fell  off  your  farm  and  got  killed. ' ' 

There  are  two  things  on  which  Secretary  Wilson 
set  his  heart.  One  was  the  establishment  of  a  sub- 
stantial back-to-the-soil  movement,  with  government 
aid ;  the  other,  the  fostering  of  seasonal  vacations  for 
workers  in  the  cities. 

It  is  not  an  easy  task  to  take  men  from  the  city 
where  they  have  become  used  to  the  life  there  and 
put  them  on  farms  expecting  them  to  stay.  It  is  only 
a  question  of  a  short  time  when  they  will  get  back  to 
the  city  again.  It  is  almost  the  same  with  immigrants 
who  come  to  this  country  after  having  lived  and 
worked  in  communities  on  the  other  side.  They,  too, 
find  the  life  on  the  farm  monotonous ;  there  seems  to 
be  something  lacking,  and  in  course  of  time  many  of 
them  also  drift  back  to  the  cities. 

In  this  regard  Mr.  Wilson  said:    "I  have  a  plan, 


SOMETHING  ABOUT  FARMING  65 

however,  and  if  Congress  will  only  help  me,  I  am  quite 
sure  it  will  be  successful.  You  know  that  every  im- 
migrant coming  into  this  country  has  to  pay  a  head 
tax  of  eight  dollars,  and  since  this  tax  has  been  in  ef- 
fect it  has  yielded  $10,000,000  more  than  the  cost 
of  the  service.  Now  if  Congress  will  give  us  that  sur- 
plus of  $10,000,000  to  help  in  our  back-to-the-farm 
movement,  I  think  it  will  be  a  question  of  only  a  short 
time  when  the  present  congestion  in  the  large  cities 
will  be  reduced,  and  the  cost  of  living  cheapened  con- 
siderably in  addition.  While  our  plans  for  this  back- 
to-the-farm  movement  are,  of  course,  in  an  embryo 
etate  just  now,  I  confidently  hope  to  have  them  in 
shape  for  Congress  when  it  requests  them." 

"How  will  this  $10,000,000  help  your  plan;  do 
you  intend  to  buy  farms  and  give  them  to  persons  of 
good  agricultural  training  living  in  the  cities  ? ' '  some 
one  would  then  ask  the  Secretary,  as  he  told  his  story. 

' '  No,  not  exactly  that, ' '  the  Secretary  would  reply ; 
"but  we  do  plan  to  help  them  financially  to  get  a  start. 
In  starting  the  back-to-the-farm  movement  going,  our 
first  efforts  will  be  to  bring  about  community  life. 
We  intend  to  gather  together  a  number  of  families 
who  are  more  or  less  congenial.  They  may  or  may 
not  be  all  of  the  same  nationality.  Then  we  will  buy 
the  land  and  lay  it  out,  giving  each  family  whatever 
allotment  it  needs,  of  course  charging  for  it.  In  ad- 
dition, we  also  plan  to  supply  them  with  farm  im- 
plements, and,  if  necessary,  with  the  means  to  keep 
them  going  until  they  are  able  to  get  a  return  from 
their  farms. 

"To  protect  the  Government  I  would  have  the  in- 
dividual owner  of  'each  farm  give  us  a  mortgage  or 


66  W.  B.  WILSON 

note  for  the  money  advanced,  either  for  the  purchase 
of  the  land  or  implements  or  the  means  advanced  to 
keep  them  until  after  harvest  time.  In  addition  to 
this,  these  individual  mortgage  notes  would  be  in- 
dorsed or  supervised  by  the  other  members  of  the  com- 
munity, so  that  we  shall  have  a  double  guarantee  that 
the  money  will  be  returned.  It  would  thus  become  a 
rotary  fund  that  could  be  used  over  and  over  again. 

"It  would  not  be  my  intention  to  establish  these 
farming  communities  in  places  far  removed  from  large 
cities.  On  the  contrary,  I  propose  to  get  as  close  as 
possible  to  the  large  centers  of  population.  I  mean, 
of  course,  as  close  as  the  price  we  believe  we  can  pur- 
chase the  land  for  will  warrant.  Why,  I  have  been  told 
that  there  are  100,000  acres  of  tillable  land  within  a 
hundred  miles  of  New  York  City  that  can  be  pur- 
chased for  $15  an  acre  or  less.  See  what  the  establish- 
ment of  farming  communities  in  this  area  would 
mean  to  the  people  of  New  York. 

"I  propose  that  the  Secretary  of  Agriculture  as- 
sign specialists  in  the  production  and  marketing  of 
farm  products  to  these  various  communities,  there  to 
aid  the  farmers  in  every  way  to  produce  the  finest 
crops  at  lowest  cost." 

But  the  back-to-the-soil  plans  over  which  Secretary 
Wilson  worked  are  no  more  interesting  than  his  plans 
for  what  he  called  harvest  vacation  clubs.  In  brief, 
these  clubs  would  consist  of  groups  of  toilers  from 
workshops  and  factories  who  during  the  summer 
would  be  sent  to  farms  for  vacation  periods  to  aid  in 
such  things  as  hop  picking,  berry  picking,  fruit  pick- 
ing, and  the  like,  as  well  as  heavier  harvesting. 

The  idea  for  this  form  of  recreation  was  brought 


SOMETHING  ABOUT  FARMING  67 

home  to  the  Secretary  when,  as  a  little  boy,  he  worked 
beside  his  father  in  the  coal  mines  of  Pennsylvania. 
Still  later,  when  employed  in  the  iron  mines  of  Oneida 
County,  New  York,  he  received  a  further  demonstra- 
tion of  its  efficacy. 

"When  I  was  a  little  boy,"  Secretary  Wilson  once 
said  to  me,  "my  father  would  say  to  me  quite  fre- 
quently, 'William,  while  you  are  resting,  drill  a  hole,' 
or,  'William,  while  you  are  resting,  set  a  prop,'  and 
so  on.  At  that  time  I  did  not  understand  the  phi- 
losophy of  my  father 's  words.  It  was  some  years  later 
that  my  father 's  philosophy  became  clear  to  me,  and  I 
learned  that  a  change  of  work  is  often  a  rest.  A  num- 
ber of  years  ago  I  worked  in  an  iron  ore  mine  at  Clin- 
ton, New  York.  At  that  time  it  was  the  center 
of  the  hop  growing  industry.  One  day  I  was 
told  that  the  mines  were  going  to  shut  down,  and 
that  every  other  industry  in  the  neighborhood  was 
going  to  shut  down,  and  we  were  all  going  hop-picking. 
I  didn't  quite  understand  what  it  all  meant  until  I 
got  into  the  hop  fields.  There  we  lived  several  weeks 
in  tents,  picking  hops  in  the  day  and  attending  hops 
at  night  time,  and  I  learned  that  each  year  all  the 
employees  of  the  industrial  plants  at  Clinton  took  a 
vacation  by  going  into  the  hop  fields.  It  was  a  vaca- 
tion that  helped  the  hop  farmers,  because  it  supplied 
them  with  the  necessary  labor  to  harvest  their  crops, 
and  it  was  a  vacation  that  proved  a  great  physical 
benefit  to  the  employees  of  the  industrial  concerns  be- 
cause it  was  something  new.  It  was  out  in  the  open 
and  everybody  seemed  to  enjoy  it  immensely,  and  re- 
turned to  his  work  in  town  greatly  benefited  in  health 
and  no  worse  off  financially. 


68  W.  B.  WILSON 

"Soon  after  I  became  Secretary  of  Labor,"  Mr. 
Wilson  continued, ' '  the  thought  occurred  to  me  that  if 
a  vacation  of  this  kind  was  so  helpful  and  successful 
up  at  Clinton  there  was  no  reason  why  it  should  not 
be  taken  up  advantageously  by  the  larger  cities.  In 
fact,  my  experience  last  year  in  supplying  labor  for 
the  wheat  fields  has  almost  convinced  me  that  it  will 
provide  a  solution  for  the  problem  of  supplying  labor 
for  short  periods. 

"Last  summer,"  the  Secretary  went  on,  "we  sent 
110,000  men  out  to  the  wheat  fields.  They  worked  for 
two  and  a  half  months,  and  then  there  was  nothing 
for  them  to  do.  They  had  spent  their  railroad  fare 
to  get  to  these  places,  and  the  problem  was  a  serious 
one.  If  we  had  been  able  to  take  the  men  from  oc- 
cupations in  the  cities,  such  as  glass  blowing  and 
foundry  work,  both  of  which  are  confining,  and  send 
them  out  to  the  wheat  belt  during  the  harvest  season, 
how  much  better  would  it  have  been  for  the  men 
themselves,  their  employers,  and  for  the  farmers.  Dur- 
ing the  summer  months  work  at  these  occupations  is 
dull,  and  there  would  be  an  opportunity  to  spend  two 
or  three  weeks  working  in  the  open  air,  which  be- 
cause of  its  novelty  would  prove  of  much  physical 
value.  Of  course,  such  a  plan  can  be  put  into  opera- 
tion only  when  employers  and  employees  alike  accept 
it  and  make  preparations  in  advance  to  put  it  into 
effect." 

In  this  way,  the  Secretary  believed,  the  health  of 
the  men  would  be  much  benefited,  and  at  the  same 
time  the  needs  of  the  farmers  would  be  supplied.  To 
the  men  who  would  work  it  would  be  a  novelty.  The 
work  would  be  out  in  the  open  air  all  day,  with  plenty 


SOMETHING  ABOUT  FARMING  69 

of  good,  substantial  food  and  a  good  place  to  sleep. 
It  would  be  a  change,  and  in  addition  the  men  em- 
ployed would  receive  compensation  for  their  work 
that  would  more  than  pay  for  their  railroad  fare. 

Should  the  plans  of  W.  B.  Wilson  be  successful, 
pale-faced  clerks  who  spend  all  their  time  in  badly  ven- 
tilated offices  bending  over  books  will  be  found  in  the 
apple  orchards,  picking  the  fruit  and  having  a  bully 
good  time  in  doing  it.  It  is  also  not  improbable  that 
pale-faced  factory  and  shop  girls  will  be  found  in  the 
berry  fields  and  the  hop  fields  engaged  in  a  work  dif- 
ferent from  that  in  the  cities,  and  consequently  afford- 
ing a  pleasant  diversion.  While,  of  course,  the  days 
will  be  spent  in  work  in  the  open  air,  every  provision 
will  be  made  for  the  recreation  of  the  workers. 

There  could  be  various  kinds  of  entertainments  in 
the  evening,  so  that  the  mechanic,  the  clerk,  or  the  fac- 
tory girl  who  gives  up  two,  three,  or  four  weeks  in  the 
summer  to  this  new  kind  of  work  would  be  benefited 
in  health,  and  would  have  all  the  pleasure  to  be  de- 
rived from  an  ordinary  vacation,  besides  receiving 
reasonably  good  compensation. 

Of  course,  Mr.  Wilson  always  had  special  sym- 
pathy for  the  city  man.  He  loved  not  only  people  but 
animals,  and  everything  else  that  grew  and  moved. 
He  was  especially  fond  of  dogs,  and  all  dogs  seemed 
to  know  that  Mr.  Wilson  was  fond  of  them.  It  was 
not  an  unusual  thing  for  a  stray  dog  to  greet  him  on 
the  street  like  a  long  lost  owner.  Mr.  Wilson  never 
turned  a  dog  away;  in  most  cases  he  couldn't  if  he 
had  wanted  to  do  so,  with  the  result  that  there  are 
several  dogs  in  the  Wilson  household. 

Many  ask  me  what  is  the  secret  of  Secretary  Wil- 


70  W.  B.  WILSON 

son's  success.  Many  Vender  how  it  is  possible  for  a 
man  who  was  forced  to  leave  school  at  nine  years  of 
age  to  become  the  Labor  Administrator  of  the  great- 
est nation  on  the  face  of  the  earth  during  the  most 
critical  period  of  history.  Many  wonder  how  this 
man,  who  has  spent  twenty-seven  years  in  the  mines 
underground,  working  in  the  darkness,  has  the  re- 
markable knowledge  of  conditions  and  events  which 
he  has.  Those  who  have  heard  him  speak,  and  know 
of  his  power,  wonder  where  he  got  it  and  how  he  de- 
veloped it. 

Of  course,  he  secured  and  developed  it  by  hard 
work.  After  his  hard  day's  work  in  the  mines,  he  im- 
mediately went  to  his  books  and  studied.  He  was 
always  a  great  reader  and  a  great  student.  He  never 
wasted  a  moment.  Whenever  the  opportunity  offered, 
whether  by  the  miner's  lamp  in  the  darkness  or  by 
candle  light  at  home  or  on  horseback  while  traveling 
over  the  mountains,  if  he  had  a  spare  moment,  he 
would  take  a  book  from  his  pocket  and  study.  Many 
will  give  this  explanation  as  the  reason  for  his  success. 

People,  however,  who  have  studied  the  careers  of 
great  men  know  that  Mr.  Wilson's  success  is  not 
really  due  to  this  fact.  Lots  of  people  have  worked 
and  studied  as  hard  and  harder  than  ever  Secretary 
Wilson  did.  Moreover,  there  are  thousands  of  men 
in  the  country  of  whom  we  have  never  heard  who  know 
infinitely  more  than  Secretary  Wilson.  Education  is 
a  good  thing.  Work  is  a  good  thing.  Study  and  work 
are  necessary  for  success,  but  these  of  themselves  are 
of  little  value. 

W.  B.  Wilson's  real  success  is  due  to  the  fact  that 
he  has  a  heart,  and  that  he  knows  how  to  read  other 


SOMETHING  ABOUT  FARMING     71 

men  through  their  hearts.  Moreover,  this  is  the  secret 
of  almost  all  success.  It  is  well  enough  to  talk  about 
economics,  statistics,  logic,  etc.,  but  these  things  really 
cut  little  figure  in  the  affairs  of  life.  Possibly  five  per 
cent,  of  what  we  do  we  do  from  reason,  but  fully 
ninety-five  per  cent,  we  do  for  love  of  friends  and  for 
the  satisfaction  of  our  own  desires  and  emotions.  We 
are  apt  to  think  that  it  is  things  that  make  the  world 
go  round,  but  this  is  a  great  mistake.  Buildings,  in- 
dustries, railroads,  steamships,  and  even  schools  and 
colleges  are  the  mere  shell  of  the  egg.  The  life  of  the 
egg  is  the  heart  throb,  and  it  is  the  heart  throb  that 
makes  the  world  go  round. 

W.  B.  Wilson's  heart  throbs.  It  always  did.  More- 
over, when  his  heart  is  throbbing,  it  seems  to  make 
the  other  fellow's  heart  throb  also.  The  result  is  that 
he  makes  friends,  these  friends  mean  other  friends, 
and  all  work  together  for  a  common  good. 

This  spirit  of  the  man  is  evident  in  his  published 
poems  and  in  the  letters  that  he  has  written,  but 
most  of  all  in  his  love  for  animals  and  things  that 
grow. 

His  love  for  others  was  especially  evident  to  me  in 
connection  with  the  preparation  of  copy  for  posters 
which  were  used  during  the  war.  For  nearly  all  these 
posters  were  either  written  or  approved  by  him.  When 
I  wrote  the  words,  "  You  should  stick  to  your  job," 
he  would  correct  it  and  say,  "  We  must  stick  to  our 
jobs."  He  constantly  kept  in  mind  that  the  other 
fellow  is  just  as  anxious  to  do  what  is  right  as  we  are, 
and  that  the  task  is  to  show  him  gently  what  that  task 
is  without  offending  him.  Sometimes  he  would  dis- 
approve of  copy  altogether,  and  write  in  the  margin 


72  W.  B.  WILSON 

these  words,  "  Don't  scold,  rather  enthuse;"  or  he 
would  say,  "  Appeal  to  the  hearts  of  the  men."  I 
first  learned  lessons  along  these  lines  from  George 
H.  Lorimer,  editor  of  the  Saturday  Evening  Post; 
but  those  were  confirmed  and  emphasized  by  what  I 
have  experienced  with  W.  B.  Wilson. 

Manufacturers  and  other  employers  would  come  to 
him  to  discuss  questions  of  wages  and  hours,  and  he 
would  always  courteously  discuss  these  two  things 
with  them.  After  the  interview  was  over,  however, 
and  these  manufacturers  had  left  the  room,  he  would 
say: 

"Oh,  how  they  miss  the  point!  It's  not  wages  and 
hours,  as  such,  in  which  wage  earners  of  the  country 
are  interested.  Wages  and  hours  are  but  temporary 
means  to  an  end.  Wage  earners  are  no  different  from 
the  rest  of  us.  We  are  all  actuated  by  the  same  basic 
motives.  The  three  great  words  of  life  are  self-preser- 
vation, self-reproduction,  and  self-respect.  These  are 
fundamental  with  all  normal  persons,  whether  employ- 
ers or  wage  workers.  Oh,  may  the  time  come  when 
the  employer  will  realize  that  it  is  not  wages  or  hours 
that  the  wage  workers  are  interested  in;  but  rather, 
they  are  interested  in  self-preservation,  self -reproduc- 
tion, and  self-respect!  When  employers  grasp  this 
fact,  and  so  arrange  industry  as  to  enable  the  wage 
worker  to  work  out  his  self-preservation,  self-repro- 
duction, and  self-respect,  then  the  question  of  wages 
and  hours  will  solve  itself.  We  talk  about  co-opera- 
tion. We  all  want  co-operation,  but  co-operation  will 
come  only  as  employer  and  wage  worker  unite  in  de- 
veloping means  whereby  both  shall  have  and  enjoy 
self-preservation,  self-reproduction,  and  self-respect. 


CHAPTER  X 

BUSINESS  CYCLES 

IN  FORMER  times,  when  the  telegraph,  railroads, 
and  other  modern  conveniences  were  unknown  and 
monetary  systems  were  only  of  the  simplest  type, 
cycles  in  the  business  world  took  the  form  of  "years 
of  plenty"  and  " years  of  famine";  but  with  the  ad- 
vent of  modern  industrial  improvements  and  busi- 
ness methods  we  have  gradually  arrived  at  a  more 
or  less  systematic,  cyclical  condition  of  affairs  affect- 
ing the  commercial  and  financial  interests  of  the  en- 
tire world.  As  such  a  cycle  consumed  the  major 
portion  of  Mr.  Wilson's  life,  a  description  is  worth 
while. 

All  history  has  been  marked  by  distinct  economic 
cycles.  Although  of  different  durations,  each  cycle 
has  consisted  of  four  distinct  periods,  namely : 

(1)  A  Period  of  Prosperity; 

(2)  A  Period  of  Decline; 

(3)  A  Period  of  Depression; 

(4)  A  Period  of  Improvement. 

The  idea  that  reckless  prosperity  can  ever  become 
permanent  and  will  not  be  followed  by  a  business 
depression,  or  the  idea  that  there  can  be  an  unlimited 
period  of  depression  without  being  followed  by  re- 
newed activity,  shows  both  ignorance  of  economics 
and  utter  inexperience  in  the  business  world.  Theo- 
retically, there  should  be  a  state  where  everybody 
is  always  prosperous  and  nobody  over-extends,  where 

73 


74  W.  B.  WILSON 

the  cost  of  living  is  reasonable,  and  the  wage  earner 
has  a  margin  to  save  for  old  age.  Yet  it  is  true  that 
we  have  never  so  far  seen  a  condition  so  equable. 

As  above  fhdicated,  if  the  business  of  every  country 
were  left  to  progress  along  a  normal  line  of  growth 
(such  as  is  represented  by  XY  on  the  Edbson  Com- 
posite Plot],  neither  being  inflated  beyond  what  it 
should  be  nor  declining  below  its  proper  mean,  there 
would  be  no  cycles,  and  panics,  depressions,  and  booms 
would  be  things  of  the  past;  but  up  to  the  present 
we  have  not  experienced  this.  Nevertheless,  the  vary- 
ing periods  continue  less  violent  in  the  older,  and 
more  conservative  countries  like  England  and  France, 
although  radical  and  marked  in  our  own  compara- 
tively new  continent  where  the  temperament  of  the 
people  is  so  energetic,  impatient,  and  impulsive. 

There  are  various  changes  in  the  business  condi- 
tions of  our  country  which  are  generally  known  as 
minor  cycles.  These  are  of  a  duration  of  only  a  very 
few  years  (witness  such  depressions  as  those  of  1884, 
1903,  etc.) ;  but  these  are  only  incidents  in  the  great 
general  or  major  cycles  of  about  twenty  years'  dura- 
tion—1837-1857,  1857-1873,  1873-1893,  and  1893-1914, 
the  last  two  of  which  had  an  important  effect  upon 
Mr.  Wilson's  life. 

Let  us  examine  the  various  features  connected  with 
each  period.  Let  us  imagine  ourselves  in  the  midst 
of  an  era  of  improvement,  such  as  was  incident  to 
the  period  beginning  about  1878  or  1898,  at  a  time 
when  Mr.  Wilson  and  his  associates  had  plenty  of 
work.  Let  us  assume  that  the  accumulated  surplus 
on  the  merchants'  shelves  has  liow  been  sold,  and  new 
orders  are  coming  in,  first  with  a  measured  increase, 


BUSINESS  CYCLES  75 

and  later  like  an  avalanche.  The  workmen  who  a 
few  years  before  were  despondent  and  out  of  work 
are  now  carrying  the  ' '  full  dinner  pail  and  singing  a 
blithesome  song."  Over  time  and  "double  shifts" 
will  soon  be  the  order  of  the  day.  Railroad  affairs, 
so  long  in  a  dormant  or  unsatisfactory  condition,  are 
now  awakened  into  life, — first  for  repairs  and  equip- 
ment, then  for  improvements,  and  later  on  for  exten- 
sions and  double  trackings. 

Consumption  now  exceeds  production,  causing  a 
continued  rise  in  prices,  merchants  buy  freely,  and 
stock  up  with  large  bills  of  goods,  fully  believing  that 
the  increasing  demand  will  enable  them  to  sell  much 
merchandise  at  a  handsome  profit.  In  consequence 
of  this  new  demand,  the  smaller  firms  begin  to  expand, 
hire  more  elaborate  quarters,  add  to  their  working 
force,  and  the  larger  established  companies  plan  new 
factory  buildings  and  great  campaigns  for  a  perma- 
nently enlarged  business.  Right  at  this  point  the 
tendency  to  over-build  and  over-expand  appears,  espe- 
cially among  those  who  have  not  given  sufficient  at- 
tention to  fundamental  conditions,  and  watched  bank 
clearings,  foreign  trade,  crops,  etc.,  or  all  combined 
as  shown  on  the  Composite  Plot. 

The  big  interests  plan  not  only  for  present  needs 
and  growth,  but  for  many  years  hence,  on  the  sup- 
position that  business  will  increase  indefinitely  at  the 
same  rapid  rate.  The  more  conservative  resist  at 
first  the  temptation  to  expand  unduly;  but  later, 
seeing  the  other  concerns  preparing  to  take  the  lion's 
share  of  the  extra  demand  for  goods  in  their  line, 
increase  their  own  plants  to  keep  pace  with  the  ex- 
pansion, 


76  W.  B.  WILSON 

The  cut-throat  competition  of  a  few  years  previous 
is  almost  forgotten  in  the  effort  to  fill  orders  at  fancy 
prices.  This  is  the  period  when  competition  gives 
way  to  consolidation,  and  the  manufacturing  and 
other  interests,  tired  of  price  and  rate  wars,  natu- 
rally tend  to  co-operation  inasmuch  as  there  is  more 
than  enough  business  for  all.  They,  in  fact,  inaugu- 
rate plans  for  close  alliances  and  consolidation  of 
interest  which  will  do  away,  as  far  as  they  are  con- 
cerned, with  the  disastrous  times  they  have  lately 
experienced.  Such  a  period  of  railroad  "community 
of  interests"  and  trust  forming  existed  in  1870,  when 
Billy  Wilson  as  a  boy  landed  at  Ellis  Island,  and 
then  again  in  1890,  and  later  in  1910. 

The  beginning  of  this  real  activity  is  the  sign  for 
the  foreign  population  to  rush  for  the  "boom" 
country.  Many  laborers,  who  had  a  few  years  before 
crowded  the  outgoing  steamships  to  return  with  their 
savings  to  the  "Old  Country"  where  living  was 
cheap,  now  return  to  take  advantage  of  the  great 
demand  for  labor  and  good  wages.  At  first  the  im- 
migration figures  show  a  small  increase,  then  a  larger 
increase,  until  finally  every  incoming  ocean  steamer 
is  crowded,  and  the  steamship  authorities,  intent  on 
making  up  for  lost  time,  search  high  and  low  for 
European  peasants  to  swell  the  lists  of  those  who 
make  up  their  steerage  traffic  as  they  come  to  take 
advantage  of  our  prosperity. 

Skilled  labor  also  enjoys  particular  advantages 
during  such  periods,  as  competitive  bidding  for  its 
hire  becomes  more  and  more  keen.  As  the  increased 
demand  raises  the  prices  of  labor,  workers  become 
more  and  more  independent,  labor  unions  and  ' '  walk- 


BUSINESS  CYCLES  77 

ing  delegates"  thrive,  strikes  are  likely  to  predomi- 
nate and  increase  almost  in  proportion  as  prosperity 
increases.  As  Mr.  Wilson  has  often  said,  "  Condi- 
tions make  the  agitators;  the  agitators  do  not  make 
conditions. ' ' 

As  the  hum  of  manufacturing  activity  continues 
from  day  to  day,  and  news  of  high  wages,  short  hours, 
and  double  time  is  scattered  abroad,  many  are  at- 
tracted from  the  country  to  the  city.  In  this  way  a 
surplus  of  labor  is  finally  accumulated  in  the  cities 
at  the  expense  of  the  farms  and  agricultural  produc- 
tion. This  tends  to  cut  down  the  amount  of  raw 
products,  and  at  the  same  time  raises  the  price  of 
commodities,  all  of  which  still  further  overstrains 
the  already  expanded  condition  of  affairs.  Em- 
ployers, anxious  to  keep  their  plants  running  and 
turn  out  their  orders,  are  now  likely  to  accede  to  all 
demands  of  labor.  The  workmen  ask  for  more  money, 
pleading  the  increased  cost  of  living,  and  the  em- 
ployer immediately  has  recourse  to  higher  prices  for 
his  goods.  Mr.  Wilson  enjoyed  this  period  for  a 
short  time  during  his  life ;  but  it  did  not  last  long. 

Commodity  prices  are  all  this  time  gradually  in- 
creasing during  a  period  of  prosperity.  Iron  and 
copper,  with  other  construction  materials,  are  con- 
tinually on  the  ascending  scale.  Food  stuffs  and 
clothing  enhance  in  value.  Opportunity  then  exists 
for  the  unscrupulous  manipulator  to  corner  the  neces- 
saries of  life,  take  advantage  of  the  extraordinary  de- 
mand on  the  part  of  manufacturers,  and  force  prices 
skyward  until  a  smash  occurs.  These  excessive  prices 
and  general  optimism  cause  merchants  and  manufac- 
turers gradually  to  extend  their  borrowing  and  build 


78  W.  B.  WILSON 

up  an  inverted  pyramid  of  over-expansion  until  the 
day  comes  when  it  fails  with  a  stupendous  crash.  Mr. 
Wilson  was  hit  by  two  of  these  blows — in  1873  and 
again  in  1893,  with  an  intermediate  crack  in  1884. 

But,  to  go  tack  a  little  before  this  time,  when  banks 
are  overloaned  and  everything  is  strained  to  the 
breaking  point,  there  is  likely  to  occur  what  is  known 
as  a  "money"  or  "stock  market"  panic.  The  pur- 
chasing power  of  the  public  has  reached  a  limit,  a 
selling  movement  and  a  shock  occurs,  everybody  is 
frightened,  and  almost  before  it  is  known  the  stock 
market  has  collapsed.  As  may  be  expected,  in  case 
such  a  "rich  man's  panic"  occurs,  the  losses  are 
principally  in  and  around  the  great  centers  like  New 
York,  while  the  West  scarcely  feels  the  effect  at  all. 
A  recovery,  however,  usually  comes  after  this  first 
crack.  The  stock  market  rallies,  and  the  principal 
result  is  that  many  who  were  caught  in  the  crash  do 
not  again  return  to  speculation. 

Yet  railroad  earnings  continue  to  increase,  being 
little  affected  by  the  temporary  Wall  Street  trouble. 
The  great  agricultural  sections  of  our  country  pre- 
serve their  optimistic  attitude.  The  very  fact  that 
the  "crash"  has  occurred  (even  though  it  be  only  a 
crash  in  Wall  Street),  and  is  now  a  thing  of  the  past,  is 
reassuring  to  those  who  are  not  sufficiently  informed. 
The  best  informed  investors,  however,  have  already 
sold  the  highest  grade  bonds  some  time  ago,  and  are 
now  in  the  process  of  liquidating  their  more  specula- 
tive bonds.  Consequently  bond  prices  are  now  grad- 
ually falling,  while  stocks  may  again  be  engineered 
for  a  rise. 

During  such  a  period  extravagance  runs  riot.    The 


BUSINESS  CYCLES  79 

better  grade  clerks  and  mechanics,  who  have  been 
living  in  cramped  quarters  since  the  depression  in 
the  struggle  to  come  out  "square,"  move  into  better 
and  more  congenial  homes.  Real  estate  sells  at 
nearly  top  figures.  Credit  expands,  money  is  easy, 
and  rates  are  low.  Commodity  prices  climb  skyward, 
wages  are  increasing,  money  is  made  freely  and  con- 
sequently quickly  spent.  The  better  classes  now  turn 
their  attention  to  foreign  travel  in  the  effort  to  spend 
some  of  the  money  which  has  been  made.  Long 
vacations,  elaborate  excursions,  and  luxurious  living 
is  the  general  order  of  the  day.  Capital  is  exhausted 
by  such  methods,  but  in  the  good  feeling  that  pre- 
dominates, and  the  extravagance  that  prevails,  the 
future  is  mortgaged  with  the  idea  that  good  times 
will  continue  indefinitely.  All  this  tends  to  selfish- 
ness and  self-indulgence,  qualities  that  breed  social 
and  moral  waywardness,  which  in  turn  demands  more 
money  and  inculcates  a  disposition  to  get  it  by  fair 
means  or  foul.  Hence  the  awful  corruption  that  is 
disclosed  when  the  day  of  reckoning  appears.  Hence 
the  bitter  attitude  of  the  masses  when  this  corruption 
is  disclosed. 

At  such  a  time  the  whole  situation  is  strained 
nearly  to  its  utmost  limit.  Banks  are  overloaned,  re- 
serves are  low,  capital  is  exhausted  in  this  country, 
and  much  is  drawn  from  foreign  centres.  Over-pro- 
duction is  rife,  the  railroads  are  clogged  with  trans- 
portation, a  great  shortage  in  cars  occurs,  and  orders 
are  delayed.  The  stock  market  is  by  this  time  pushed 
to  new  inflated  levels,  and  all  is  ripe  for  the  inevitable 
decline.  Only  some  startling  event  is  necessary  to 
start  values  on  a  downward  scale,  and  often  this  oc- 


80  W.  B.  WILSON 

curs  in  the  form  of  a  great  earthquake,  a  fire,  assas- 
sination, crop  failure,  labor  strike,  or  other  conclusive 
event,  and  generally  the  failure  of  some  large  banking 
concern  follows. 

For  some  time  the  insiders  have  been  selling.  At 
last  the  market  begins  to  fall.  Interest  rates  have 
been  increasing  for  some  time,  as  the  demand  for 
money  for  speculation  increases,  and  now  rates  rise 
rapidly  and  a  great  shortage  of  loaning  ability  oc- 
curs. For  a  long  while  the  bears  have  been  attacking 
the  market  with  indifferent  success;  but  now  a  con- 
tinuous decline  occurs  in  spite  of  all  the  bulls  can 
do  to  resist  it.  At  such  a  time  stock  values  have  been 
known  to  shrink  $2,000,000,000  or  more  within  six 
months.  Thousands  of  business  men  and  others  are 
caught  unprepared,  and  carried  down  in  the  rush. 
Many,  carried  away  with  the  apparent  great  pros- 
perity, do  not  even  dream  of  such  a  crash,  but  wake 
up  too  late  and  find  themselves  ruined.  Failures 
now  abound.  Then  comes  the  sad  day  for  labor  which 
W.  B.  Wilson  has  seen  only  too  often.  These  are 
the  experiences  that  make  the  friends  of  labor  fearful 
of  the  capitalistic  system. 

Apprehension  now  takes  the  place  of  confidence. 
Prices  having  become  so  high,  people  can  stand  it  no 
longer,  especially  those  living  on  fixed  incomes.  Ex- 
penses are  curtailed,  high-priced  foods  and  other  com- 
modities are  tabooed,  and  the  result  is  a  loss  of  orders 
on  the  part  of  manufacturers.  When  production  ex- 
ceeds consumption  prices  fall  owing  to  the  severe 
competition  which  follows.  This  decline  is  first  felt 
in  raw  materials,  and  such  articles  as  pig  iron,  copper, 
wheat,  corn,  and  other  grains,  butter,  eggs,  and  pro- 


BUSINESS  CYCLES  81 

visions  are  now  due  for  an  extensive  slump.  As  iron 
enters  so  largely  into  railroad  construction  and  many 
other  lines  of  trade,  when  caution  begins  to  prevail 
a  great  scramble  is  made  on  the  part  of  the  users  of 
this  commodity  to  cancel  orders.  This  causes  still 
further  disaster.  Extreme  dullness  in  the  iron  and 
steel  industry  is  soon  felt  in  other  similar  lines.  At 
this  period  occurs  the  hand-to-mouth  policy  so  much 
dreaded  by  manufacturers.  Demand  for  goods  de- 
creases to  a  minimum  because  everybody  is  hoping  to 
take  advantage  of  still  lower  prices. 

This  leaves  manufacturers  with  large  stocks  of  goods 
which  they  not  only  find  it  hard  to  dispose  of,  but 
which  are  often  sold  at  a  loss.  As  these  stocks  of  goods 
represent  a  great  amount  of  money,  which  is  not 
readily  available,  further  failures  follow.  This  also 
continues  to  overstrain  the  banking  situation  still 
more. 

At  this  juncture  the  farmer,  who  has  been  paying 
enormous  prices  for  his  necessities,  holds  back  grains 
and  other  products  of  his  fields  in  the  hope  of 
getting  better  prices  later  on.  Finding,  however,  that 
prices  do  not  readily  rise,  he  throws  his  goods  on  to 
•the  market,  and  concerted  action  of  many  serves  to 
hold  the  price  down  by  glutting  the  market. 

Railroads  have  at  this  end  of  the  boom  replaced 
their  long  time  bond  issues  by  short  term  notes,  in  the 
hope  that  the  prevailing  high  interest  rates  will  be 
lower  at  the  maturity  of  these  issues.  At  maturity, 
however,  it  is  found  almost  impossible  to  get  the 
market  to  absorb  any  new  issues  at  all.  New  proj- 
ects are  postponed,  equipment  orders  are  called  off, 
and  while  an  effort  is  made  not  to  discharge  any  men, 


82  W.  B.  WILSON 

a  general  slackening  is  felt,  causing  increasing  dull- 
ness in  the  iron  and  steel  centers  and  affiliated  trades. 
This  is  a  period  when  railroad  gross  earnings  are 
fairly  large,  but  owing  to  slackened  business  and 
costs  not  yet  liquidated,  net  earnings  tend  to  show  a 
falling  off.  At  this  point  the  weaker  companies,  one 
by  one,  pass  their  dividends,  more  hesitation  occurs, 
and  apprehension  grows. 

During  the  previous  boom  more  and  more  investors 
and  speculators  purchased  real  estate.  Land  values 
in  city  and  country  consequently  appreciated.  There 
seems  to  be  a  feeling  prevalent  that  land  is  something 
more  permanent  and  substantial,  and  therefore  will 
not  depreciate.  On  the  contrary,  however,  some  of  the 
greatest  depressions  from  which  labor  has  suffered 
have  been  in  part  due  to  over-speculation  in  real 
estate.  The  law  of  equal  and  opposite  reaction  ap- 
plies to  land  values  as  to  everything  else.  This  espe- 
cially hits  the  working  class,  who,  at  the  time  of  high- 
priced  commodities,  are  driven  little  by  little  from 
their  city  homes  to  the  suburbs  and  country. 

The  real  estate  promoter  finds  he  has  over-built, 
and  the  farmer  also,  on  account  of  lower  prices  for 
his  products,  suddenly  awakes  to  the  fact  that  he  has 
overdrawn  on  the  future  and  inflated  farm  prices  go 
down.  It  must  be  remembered,  however,  that  the 
farmer  generally  feels  the  effect  of  the  decline  less 
than  almost  any  one  else,  largely  on  account  of  the 
fact  that  his  wares  will  always  be  purchased  sooner  or 
later,  and  at  some  price. 

According  to  Mr.  Wilson's  experience,  it  is  at  this 
juncture  that  labor  begins  to  feel  the  effect  of  the 
downward  trend.  Immigration  has  steadily  declined 


BUSINESS  CYCLES  83 

for  a  considerable  length  of  time,  especially  since 
railroad  construction  and  new  building  projects  began 
to  be  curtailed.  Over  time  has  ceased,  shorter  hours 
have  begun.  Now  comes  a  gradual  shortage  of  posi- 
tions obtainable,  and  others,  taking  advantage  of  the 
slow-down,  decide  to  reduce  the  wages  of  their  em- 
ployees. This  is  always  a  hardship.  The  men  in  good 
times  have  been  educated  to  better  living,  and  it  is 
hard  to  curtail.  During  the  latter  end  of  the  period 
of  prosperity  strikes  were  prevalent  for  more  pay, 
recognition  of  various  organizations,  etc.,  but  now  the 
workmen  are  likely  to  strike  to  better  themselves  or 
to  prevent  curtailment  of  their  opportunities.  This 
often  leads  to  a  long  and  disastrous  labor  complica- 
tion. The  unions  are  conciliated  by  capital  when 
rush  orders  are  to  be  filled,  and  thus  strikes  are  post- 
poned; but  when  orders  don't  exist  there  is  likely  to 
occur  a  great  conflict  which  extends  into  the  depres- 
sion and  lasts  until  the  laborers  see  their  case  is  hope- 
less. 

The  stock  market  meantime  continues  its  downward 
course.  Fear  and  apprehension  increase,  and  opti- 
mism reluctantly  gives  way  to  pessimism.  Luxuries  are 
given  up  by  the  wholesale.  The  people,  at  last  awak- 
ing to  the  fact  that  a  wide-spread  depression  is  im- 
minent, begin  to  urge  reform  of  every  type.  The 
party  in  power  for  some  time  has  been  scanning  the 
handwriting  on  the  wall,  and  now  opens  political 
agitation  for  supposed  betterments  on  every  hand.  If 
a  presidential  election  is  at  hand,  another  party  is 
likely  to  be  intrusted  with  the  reins  of  government. 

While  nearly  everything  and  everybody  is  assum- 
ing a  pessimistic  tone,  there  is  one  factor  that  as- 


84  W.  B.  WILSON 

sumes  a  hopeful  outlook.  At  the  height  of  the  pre- 
vious prosperity,  when  speculation  was  rife  in  other 
forms,  the  slower,  safer,  and  less  remunerative  bond 
market  was  almost  deserted.  Prices,  except  on  the 
more  speculative  issues,  had  dropped  to  a  low  ebb. 
But  now  more  conservative  investors,  tired  of  recent 
happenings,  are  turning  again  to  high  grade,  fixed 
income  securities,  and  the  bond  market,  beginning 
with  the  highest  grade  issues,  is  now  improving  every 
week. 

Interest  rates  rise,  first  slowly,  then  sometimes  with 
lightning-like  rapidity,  until  money  cannot  be  ob- 
tained at  any  rate  whatever.  These  high  rates  cause 
merchants  who  are  investing  in  shares  to  sell  their 
stocks  in  order  to  obtain  the  necessary  funds  for  their 
business,  and  this  acts  as  an  additional  depressive 
factor.  Everything  combines  to  make  matters  worse. 
Many  small  depositors  (and  often  some  very  large 
ones,  it  is  feared)  withdraw  their  funds,  a  run  on 
the  banks  occurs,  and  the  panic  'is  on.  Fear  begets 
fear,  and  the  whole  monetary  and  banking  system  has 
in  the  past  been  so  interwoven  that  bank  failures 
spread  rapidly.  In  the  great  depression  beginning  in 
1893  several  hundred  banks  went  under.  Mr.  Wilson 
then  saw  many  of  the  workers  lose  their  all. 

Money,  after  the  strain  is  over,  gradually  becomes 
as  low  as  it  was  previously  abnormally  high,  but  many 
can  not  use  it.  As  firms  try  to  extricate  themselves 
from  their  financial  tangles,  failures,  large  and  small, 
continue  among  mercantile  houses  for  a  considerable 
length  of  time.  Every  week  brings  news  of  one  after 
another  that  has  gone  under.  Imports  decrease 
amazingly,  both  in  quantity  and  value.  Mills  close 


BUSINESS  CYCLES  85 

down,  railroads  retrench, — in  fact,  it  is  not  remark- 
able if  they  go  into  bankruptcy  altogether. 

After  such  an  acute  panic  there  comes  a  long  drawn 
out  period  of  dullness  in  which  the  majority  of  people 
are  troubled  and  discouraged  beyond  measure.  Con- 
fidence, that  asset  of  so  vital  importance  to  the  busi- 
ness world,  is  now  destroyed.  Not  only  is  nearly 
every  line  of  business  in  a  depressed  condition,  but 
the  optimistic  spirit  of  the  people  which  has  prevailed 
so  long  is  now  chilled.  When  optimism  turns  to  pes- 
simism, it  is  only  a  slow,  gradual  process  that  will  re- 
place the  shattered  confiden  ^e  of  the  business  world. 

The  stronger  houses  continue  to  exist  only  because 
able  to  carry  on  business  at  a  loss,  all  the  time  hop- 
ing for  the  day  to  come  when  the  tide  will  turn  and 
they  can  recoup  their  extensive  losses.  It  is  a  case  of 
the  survival  of  the  fittest,  and  those  who  are  sagacious 
enough  to  be  informed  concerning  fundamentals  and 
to  be  strong  in  cash  at  such  times  reap  a  golden  re- 
ward for  their  foresight. 

This  is  why  the  great  business  men  like  Rockefeller, 
the  late  Marshall  Field,  and  others,  not  only  were 
secure  in  these  periods  when  others  were  undergoing 
the  agony  of  failure,  but  were  positively  able  to  lay 
the  foundation  for  tremendous  profits  later  on.  It  is 
an  open  fact  that  the  great  oil  magnate  stored  cash  in 
large  quantities  against  the  time  when  he  could  buy 
up  his  competitors  at  panic  prices.  The  great  Chi- 
cago merchant,  at  the  time  when  manufacturers  were 
scraping  the  trade  with,  a  fine-tooth  comb  for  orders, 
would  contract  to  take  their  output  for  a  term  of 
years  at  a  rate  even  above  depression  prices,  but 
which,  of  course,  would  be  low  enough  to  enable  him 


86  W.  B.  WILSON 

to  make  a  handsome  showing  as  the  country  emerged 
from  the  depression  and  entered  the  period  of  pros- 
perity again. 

Mr.  Wilson  has  called  these  things  to  my  attention 
not  in  any  complaining  spirit,  but  only  as  an  illustra- 
tion of  why  labor  feels  as  it  does  toward  such  men. 
Capital  is  vigorously  assailed  by  those  who  have  been 
thrown  out  of  employment,  and  many  times  it  is 
blamed  for  the  whole  trouble.  Strikes  are  at  first  vio- 
lent, but  finally  the  operatives  subside  into  sullen  and 
dogged  discouragement,  their  debts  pile  up,  vagrancy 
increases,  and  the  situation  is  one  of  great  hardship 
for  mechanics  and  operatives.  Immigration  declines 
to  a  minimum,  and  many  of  the  foreign  laborers  who 
came  in  swarms  to  our  shores  a  few  years  before,  now 
return  to  their  old  homes,  either  to  live  in  plenty  for 
the  remainder  of  their  lives  or  to  await  an  oppor- 
tunity to  return  when  the  next  boom  is  on.  A  period 
of  this  sort  occurred  when  Coxey's  army  marched  to 
Washington  and  will  be  long  remembered  by  our 
people. 

Hesitation  marks  the  attitude  of  nearly  everybody. 
The  hoarded  money  continues  to  lie  idle,  being  at- 
tracted only  after  a  long  while  from  its  hiding  places. 
Even  good  speculative  opportunities  are  passed  by  in 
the  extreme  conservatism.  For  a  time  a  cash  basis  is 
insisted  upon.  The  rule  of  the  day  is  now  hard 
work  among  nearly  all  classes.  Extravagance  has  had 
its  day,  the  penalty  has  been  paid,  and  now  an  era 
of  saving  is  in  force.  Small  stocks  are  carried  on  the 
shelves,  wages  are  reduced,  many  are  forced  to  change 
to  other  occupations,  less  expensive  quarters  are 
sought  out,  and  the  city  returns  many  to  the  country 


BUSINESS  CYCLES  87 

where  the  shattered  fortunes  may  be  retrieved.  This 
eventually  helps  the  great  West,  and  opens  its  re- 
sources. 

Commodity  prices  are  low,  hence  exports  increase 
to  take  advantage  of  the  better  prices  and  better  trade 
conditions  abroad,  and  interest  rates  continue  heavy. 
Stock  market  transactions  are  almost  negligible,  the 
brokers  are  despondent,  and  many  of  them  go  out  of 
business. 

Confidence  has  suffered  fearfully,  but  little  by  little 
the  situation  changes.  Many  times  matters  have  been 
said  to  be  improving,  but  hope  was  dashed  to  the 
ground.  Finally  a  slight  but  real  progress  is  seen. 
Money  piling  up  in  the  banks,  instead  of  going  into 
use,  indicates  an  abnormal  condition — that  fear  still 
reigns  in  place  of  confidence;  but  the  accretion  of 
funds  steadily  continues  until  confidence  gradually 
asserts  its  sway.  The  growth  of  confidence  naturally 
depends  on  the  force  of  the  shock  it  previously  sus- 
tained, and  on  the  various  surrounding  conditions, 
favorable  and  unfavorable.  But  the  knowledge  that 
such  great  sums  are  accumulating  in  the  banks  of  the 
country  is  an  important  factor  in  restoring  confidence. 
Such  an  accumulation  of  money  acts  as  an  object  les- 
son and  tends  ultimately  to  cheapen  the  value  of 
money,  depriving  it  of  the  false  estimate  that  has  been 
put  on  it  for  some  time  past.  Finally  it  becomes 
necessary  for  the  owners  of  this  capital  to  get  an  in- 
terest return,  and  the  money  gradually  begins  to  cir- 
culate in  business  channels  and  thus  to  start  up  better 
times.  So  again  an  extreme  cures  itself.  Loans  and 
discounts  are  the  best  indices  at  this  time  of  the  re- 


88  W.  B.  WILSON 

turn  of  confidence,  and  they  form  at  all  times  the 
best  barometer  of  mercantile  activity. 

The  process  of  reorganization  and  rehabilitation  is 
slow  and  tedious.  Capitalizations  are  scaled  down, 
new  managements  are  placed  in  charge,  and  conser- 
vative measures  adopted  for  carrying  on  the  enter- 
prises which  have  been  brought  into  disrepute  by 
reckless  speculation.  At  length  the  surplus  funds 
seek  an  outlet  for  investment,  and  there  is  developed  a 
buying  of  the  older  and  higher  grade  issues.  Railroad 
bonds  and  municipals  develop  a  fair  market.  A  few 
new  issues  are  tried.  If  success  attends  them,  con- 
fidence improves,  and  even  while  many  are  complain- 
ing of  the  fearful  depression,  and  are  beginning  to 
think  that  there  will  never  be  an  improvement,  bond 
prices  begin  to  rise. 

The  very  low  interest  rates  and  surplus  capital 
available  cause  men  to  turn  to  the  best  place  for  in- 
vestment. This  is  not  usually  the  securities  market, 
as  they  are  fearful  of  getting  their  funds  in  an  un- 
liquid  form  again,  and  that  class  of  investments 
which  was  the  first  to  go  down  is  now  the  first  to  ap- 
preciate in  price.  The  public  as  yet  does  not  enter 
the  market.  Even  the  investor  is  not  buying,  but  only 
those  who  are  students  of  fundamental  business  condi- 
tions and  who  have  been  studying  the  Composite  Plot, 
and  thus  know  that  matters  are  now  on  a  sound  basis. 
The  majority  of  people  can  not  now  be  induced  to 
buy  a  stock  or  bond  at  any  price.  The  memory  of  the 
past  is  still  strong,  and  they  are  waiting  for  every- 
body else  to  buy  before  they  buy. 

Good  commercial  paper  is  now  hard  to  obtain,  and 
the  return  on  it  is  very  small.  Finally,  the  banks, 


BUSINESS  CYCLES  89 

seeking  an  outlet  for  surplus  funds,  turn  to  the  bond 
market,  and  this  starts  an  active  business  in  this  class 
of  securities.  This  encourages  the  investor,  and  little 
by  little  the  situation  improves  until  a  good  bull 
movement  in  bonds  is  in  full  force.  .The  stock  specu- 
lator, not  slow  to  take  advantage  of  everything,  has  for 
some  time  been  trying  to  work  stocks  upward.  A  small 
rise  has  been  quickly  followed  by  a  decline,  as  some 
became  frightened  or  sought  to  take  profits,  and 
transactions  are  very  small.  As  the  bond  market 
gets  on  a  good  foundation,  however,  and  -as  confidence 
returns,  a  desire  appears  to  get  greater  profits  than 
in  the  higher  grade,  low  interest  bearing  .securities, 
and  the  stock  market,  for  a  long  while  almost  de- 
spaired of,  now  shows  a  real  improvement. 

The  banks  and  other  institutions  now  endeavor  to 
make  a  better  showing  to  stockholders,  and  look  for 
higher  yield.  The  water  has  been  squeezed  out  of 
many  stock  issues,  values  are  better  than  for  many 
years,  the  outlook  is  more  hopeful,  and  these  institu- 
tions now  begin  to  invest  in  preferred  stocks  which 
are  believed  to  be  absolutely  good.  This  encourages 
the  investor,  who  has  already  found  that  his  venture 
in  bonds  was  opportune,  and  gradually  an  active  and 
rising  stock  market  is  developed. 

Meanwhile  debts,  in  a  large  measure,  have  been  paid 
off.  The  economy  of  the  people  for  some  years  has 
relieved  the  extravagance  of  the  former  period.  Sur- 
plus stocks  are  leaving  the  merchants'  shelves.  A 
large  export  trade  has  still  further  depleted  them,  and 
a  demand  is  springing  up  which  is  felt  first  in  raw  ma- 
terials, and  later  in  manufactures.  Pig  iron,  always 
a  sensitive  barometer,  is  one  of  the  first  commodities 


90  W.  B.  WILSON 

to  show  an  improvement  in  price,  and  other  metals 
follow.  The  necessities  of  life,  and  other  materials 
that  enter  into  most  general  and  diversified  use,  now 
appreciate.  A  better  demand  is  felt  in  our  own 
country,  and  exports  fall  off  as  sales  become  more  ac- 
tive here. 

The  better  feeling  gradually  extends  to  every  form 
of  business.  Railroads  begin  to  plan  improvements 
and  to  enter  the  market  for  equipment.  New  issues 
are  being  financed  continually.  Factories,  so  long 
dormant,  awake  to  new  life.  Labor  is  better  em- 
ployed. Immigration  at  last  is  on  an  ascending  scale 
again.  New  construction  takes  on  activity.  Plans  for 
new  propositions  are  unfolded  and  taken  up  as  the 
improvement  in  trade  increases,  gradually  at  first,  but 
increasing  until  the  boom  period  is  reached  again. 

Following  the  increased  activity  of  and  rise  in  com- 
modity prices,  the  speculative  element  starts  a  bull 
campaign  in  grain,  produce,  etc.,  and  this  gives  a 
still  greater  impetus  to  all  kinds  of  business.  This  is 
the  signal  for  the  farmer  and  Western  land  speculators 
to  begin  an  upward  movement  in  real  estate,  and  land 
values  increase,  mortgages  abound,  and  an  incipient 
Western  boom  is  on  its  way  again.  Finally,  and  this 
is  the  last  thing  to  move,  real  estate  in  the  city  is  also 
in  demand  again.  New  offices  are  taken,  the  ' '  to  let " 
signs  little  by  little  are  removed  from  the  windows  of 
our  skyscrapers  and  dwelling  houses,  and  an  opti- 
mistic view  of  the  situation  begins  to  be  taken  by  all. 
This  completes  the  cycle  and  brings  us  back  to  the 
point  at  the  beginning  of  this  chapter  coincident  with 
the  period  of  improvement.  Only  as  these  cycles  are 
understood  by  the  reader,  and  it  is  realized  that  Wil- 


BUSINESS  CYCLES  91 

liam  B.  Wilson  has  struggled  through  two  of  them, 
can  his  point  of  view  toward  men  and  money  be 
understood. 


CHAPTER  XI 
RAILROADING  IN  IOWA 

THE  GREAT  panic  of  the  'nineties  left  the  country 
prostrated  industrially.  No  industry  suffered  more 
than  the  soft  coal  industry ;  no  part  of  the  country  suf- 
fered more  than  western  Pennsylvania,  where  the 
Wilsons  lived. 

But  the  Wilsons  suffered  not  only  from  the  heavy 
hand  of  business  prostration,  but  also  from  the  strong 
prejudice  of  the  mine  owners.  On  account  of  his 
part  in  the  strike  of  1894,  Mr.  Wilson  was  hated  and 
persecuted  by  the  mine  owners  of  western  Pennsyl- 
vania. It  was  impossible  for  him  to  get  a  job.  Al- 
though of  a  peaceful  and  kindly  nature,  a  man  who 
never  said  a  word  against  another,  he  was  labeled  a 
dangerous  agitator.  This  was  simply  because  he  was 
a  member  of  the  National  Executive  Board  of  the 
United  Mine  Workers  of  America.  He  received  no 
salary  for  this  work,  but  held  the  position  simply 
from  love  for  his  fellows. 

At  first  the  mine  owners  attempted  to  scare  him. 
The  lawyers,  the  courts,  the  police,  all  were  controlled 
by  the  big  corporations  owning  the  mines,  the  houses, 
the  stores,  the  churches,  the  schools,  the  railroads, 
yes — everything.  These  hard-hearted  men,  through 
their  hired  agents,  stooped  to  the  meanest  possible 
methods  of  persecution.  They  haled  Mr.  Wilson  into 
court.  The  court  enjoined  him  for  contempt.  Only 
when  the  masses  arose  and  surrounded  the  Court 
House  was  he  acquitted  by  Judges  Hoffman  and  Boyd. 

92 


RAILROADING  IN  IOWA  93 

The  mine  owners  did  not  stop  at  this.  When  he 
was  acquitted  on  the  above  charges,  the  police,  who 
were  simply  their  hired  agents,  came  and  arrested  him 
for  conspiracy.  This  was  in  Lonaconing,  Maryland. 
Was  he  taken  to  Arnot,  or  Blossburg,  or  any  other 
place  where  he  had  friends?  No,  he  was  taken  to 
Cumberland,  Maryland,  and  there  thrown  into  jail. 
All  this  was  done  secretly.  His  friends  did  not  know 
whether  he  had  been  murdered  or  kidnapped.  But 
the  whole  countryside  turned  out  to  help  search  for 
him  and  in  two  days  they  found  him. 

Wilson  always  had  friends.  He  knew  that  the  mo- 
tive of  life  is  the  heart ;  he  appealed  to  others  through 
their  hearts  and  others  appealed  to  him  through  his 
heart.  And  here  is  where  the  lawyers  with  all  their 
intelligence  and  wealth  failed  in  their  purpose  to 
crush  him.  His  friends  succeeded  in  getting  him  out 
of  jail;  they  took  him  before  a  Justice  of  the  Peace 
and  he  was  let  off  on  $500  bonds  for  appearance. 

Was  he  guilty?  I  think  the  fact  that  the  lawyers 
of  the  mine  owners  never  would  permit  the  case  to 
come  to  trial  answers  that  question.  He  never 
started  a  disturbance  in  his  life.  He  used  his  whole 
physical,  mental,  and  spiritual  energy  to  prevent 
violence.  When  the  courts  failed  and  the  jails  failed, 
then  the  mine  owners  called  out  the  militia.  The 
whole  militia  of  the  district  was  called  to  an  encamp- 
ment at  Frostburg,  Pennsylvania.  There  the  soldiers 
waited  for  an  excuse  to  pounce  upon  Wilson  and  his 
followers,  but  the  opportunity  never  came. 

When  everything  else  failed,  there  was  one  punish- 
ment which  the  mine  owners  always  had.  They  were 


94  W.  B.  WILSON 

able  to  refuse  a  workman  a  job.  They  refused  to  hire 
Wilson.  They  urged  others  to  refuse  to  hire  Wilson. 
They  said :  ' '  We  can 't  crush  him,  but  we  can  starve 
him.  We  will  refuse  to  give  him  work  or  let  others 
give  him  work  until  his  wife  and  children  cry  with 
hunger,  and  then  he  will  come  around  to  our  terms." 

This  was  the  method  which  the  mine  owners  em- 
ployed against  him  in  1881,  when,  with  fifty  others, 
he  was  thrown  out  of  employment  during  the  cold 
winter  months,  without  a  thing  to  fall  back  upon. 
That  was  when  he  found  from  sad  experience  what  it 
was  to  be  blacklisted.  That  was  when  he  was  forced  to 
dig  ditches  as  a  common  laborer,  to  work  in  the  woods 
as  a  lumber  jack,  wood  chopper,  bark  peeler,  and  log 
driver. 

Perhaps  one  of  the  most  interesting  experiences  of 
the  time  when  he  was  under  the  ban  of  the  blacklist 
was  when  he  was  railroading.  He  had  tramped  from 
Arnot,  Pennsylvania,  through  New  York  State  across 
Ohio,  Indiana,  and  Illinois,  to  Iowa,  hunting  for  work. 
Everywhere  the  report  had  preceded  him  that  he  was 
blacklisted.  It  made  no  difference  how  badly  he 
wanted  the  work  or  how  willing  he  was  to  work — he 
was  blacklisted.  It  is  his  memory  of  these  days  that 
caused  him  to  say  with  tears  in  his  eyes: 

"The  world  does  not  owe  every  one  a  living,  but  it 
does  owe  every  one  an  opportunity  to  make  a  living." 

For  weeks  he  had  tramped  and  tramped,  looking 
for  work.  People  were  anxious  to  have  him  until  they 
learned  that  he  was  one  of  the  miners  of  northern 
Pennsylvania.  Then  they  threw  him  out  and  he  was 
obliged  to  tramp  farther. 

Finally  he  reached  Waterloo,  Iowa.    The  first  per- 


RAILROADING  IN  IOWA  95 

son  whom  he  hit  for  a  job  was  a  man  in  charge  of 
the  railroad  yards,  whose  name  was  Densmore.  Mr. 
Wilson  went  to  this  man,  told  him  his  story  honestly, 
as  he  always  did,  and  Mr.  Densmore  replied : 

"If  a  man  is  willing  to  work,  I  am  willing  to  give 
him  an  opportunity.  I  care  not  what  others  say  or 
think." 

So  Densmore  gave  Wilson  a  job.  His  first  work 
was  in  the  yard,  shoveling  coal.  He  was  such  a  good 
shoveler  that  he  was  soon  made  fireman  on  a  freight 
locomotive.  After  working  around  the  yards  on  a 
shifting  engine  for  some  time,  he  was  sent  out  on 
trips.  It  was  on  one  of  these  trips  that  he  learned  to 
become  sympathetic  with  the  railroad  men.  Perhaps 
the  story  of  his  last  trip  will  explain  the  reason. 

The  order  had  come  in  for  an  engineer  named  Ken- 
nedy and  a  fireman  named  Wilson  to  leave  Waterloo 
on  a  certain  morning  for  Fort  Dodge,  a  run  of  about 
one  hundred  miles.  At  the  end  of  this  run,  gust  as  they 
were  pulling  in,  telegraphic  orders  came  for  them 
to  run  during  the  night  to  Le  Mars.  They  had  just 
reached  Le  Mars  the  next  morning  when  orders  on 
the.  wire  came  for  them  to  take  the  run  from  Le  Mars 
back  to  Fort  Dodge.  This  order  they  obeyed,  though 
it  meant  that  they  had  been  twenty-eight  hours  with- 
out sleep.  Then,  just  as  they  were  entering  Fort 
Dodge  and  were  about  ready  to  drop  in  their  tracks, 
orders  came  for  them  to  take  a  train  to  Ackley  and 
return,  a  run  of  sixty  miles  and  two  hours  additional, 
each  way.  On  returning  to  Fort  Dodge,  they  were 
sent  back  to  Waterloo,  and  then  from  Waterloo  to 
Dubuque,  a  distance  of  ninety-three  miles  and  return. 

But  the  boys  didn't  complain.    Wilson  said  he  could 


96  W.  B.  WILSON 

shovel  coal  as  long  as  the  other  chap  could  hold  on  to 
the  throttle.  They  had  been  on  a  run  of  about 
seventy-four  hours,  when  suddenly  Wilson  noticed 
that  the  engineer  was  nodding.  He  awoke  him  and 
soon  saw  him  nodding  again.  He  woke  him  the  second 
time,  and  again  found  him  sleeping.  The  third  time, 
he  told  the  engineer  to  lie  down  on  the  floor  of  the 
cab  and  Wilson  himself  took  the  throttle  and  acted  as 
engineer.  Suddenly  the  red  light  of  a  passenger 
train  came  into  view  a  few  feet  ahead  of  him.  He 
threw  in  the  reverse,  he  put  on  the  brakes,  and  stopped 
the  freight  train  just  as  the  two  trains  came  together. 
No  one  was  hurt.  The  cow  catcher  was  bent  and  the 
rear  platform  of  the  passenger  train  was  a  little 
dented,  but  that  was  all.  No,  I  won't  say  it  was  all, 
for  it  did  do  one  other  thing — it  satisfied  W.  B.  Wil- 
son as  to  railroading.  When  he  got  his  engine  back 
he  said,  "No  more  for  me;"  but  from  that  day  to 
this  he  has  had  a  warm  spot  in  his  heart  for  the 
railroad  men  of  America.  This  explains  why,  like 
the  miners,  they  have  been  solidly  behind  him.  He 
has  been  able  to  understand  them,  and  what  else  is 
there  to  life  other  than  Jove,  hope,  sympathy,  and 
understanding? 

After  going  to  bed  and  sleeping  for  a  day,  he  again 
came  to  himself  and  started  out  again  to  get  work. 
This  time  he  got  a  job  at  a  stone  quarry. 

But  the  best  part  of  it  all  is  that,  notwithstanding 
these  experiences,  Mr.  Wilson  has  always  felt  kindly 
toward  owners  and  could  always  see  both  sides  of  every 
controversy.  It  was  only  a  year  or  two  after  these 
experiences,  when  he  was  attending  a  convention  back 
in  Pennsylvania,  that  he  said : 


RAILROADING  IN  IOWA  97 

"Strikes  between  labor  and  capital  are  like  wars 
between  nations — they  bring  suffering  and  privation 
to  the  parties  involved  and  often  injury  to  the  in- 
nocent bystander.  For  that  reason  working  men  sel- 
dom engage  in  a  strike  except  where  they  have  a  real 
grievance  or  an  imaginary  grievance  which  has  all 
the  force  of  reality  to  them ;  and  for  the  same  reason 
employers  seldom  permit  a  strike  to  occur  unless  they 
believe  that  a  vital  principle  is  involved  which  they 
cannot  surrender.  How  much  better  it  would  be, 
then,  for  all  parties  concerned  instead  of  resorting  to 
strikes  and  lock-outs  to  sit  around  the  council  tables 
and  endeavor  to  work  out  their  differences  on  a  basis 
as  nearly  equitable  as  the  circumstances  surrounding 
the  industry  would  permit." 

It  was  owing  to  this  hard  experience  of  tramping 
from  place  to  place  for  a  job  that  he  insisted  on  a 
United  States  Employment  Service  when  he  had  the 
opportunity.  In  this  connection  he  said  to  me  one 
evening : 

"To  my  mind  there  has  always  been  lacking  in  our 
institutions  the  proper  means  of  connecting  the  em- 
ployer and  employee.  We  have  had  a  clearing  house 
for  almost  every  other  purpose  imaginable — clearing 
houses  of  finance,  clearing  houses  of  cotton,  clearing 
houses  for  wheat,  clearing  houses  for  every  kind  of 
human  production — but  we  have  no  clearing  house 
for  human  labor.  The  idea,  or  rather  the  nucleus — I 
might  more  properly  say  the  germ — was  first  indi- 
cated in  the  Federal  law  when  our  immigration  law 
was  created.  We  were  receiving  from  foreign  coun- 
tries large  numbers  of  immigrants.  They  were  people 
who  came  here  having  the  vision  of  human  liberty. 


98  W.  B.  WILSON 

They  were  inspired  with  the  hope  that  comes  for  a 
knowledge  of  our  institutions.  They  had  disposed  of 
all  of  their  little  belongings  in  their  home  countries 
and  had  come  to  our  shores,  spending  their  posses- 
sions in  the  transportation,  and  when  they  reached 
here  they  were  not  in  a  position  to  go  on  the  land,  cul- 
tivate, and  live  upon  it  until  they  could  get  returns 
therefrom.  They  could  not  go  out  upon  the  land  as 
farm  laborers,  because  since  the  introduction  of  mod- 
ern machinery  farming  has  become  to  a  very  great  ex- 
tent a  seasonal  occupation,  and  so  they  drifted  into 
those  classes  of  labor  where  they  could  secure  speedy 
returns  from  their  toil,  where  they  could  be  paid  at 
stated  periods.  They  created  in  our  industrial  centers 
a  congested  condition,  and  we  had  large  numbers  of 
them  unemployed.  The  number  of  unemployed  varied 
in  different  periods,  but  there  was  always  a  condition 
existing  where  the  man  around  the  corner  needed  some 
repairs  for  his  house  and  the  carpenter  around  the 
corner  needed  the  work,  and  neither  knew  of  the 
needs  of  the  other  because  there  was  no  clearing  house. 
To  relieve  that  condition  so  far  as  it  affected  the  im- 
migrant there  was  placed  in  our  immigration  law  a 
section  creating  a  division  the  duty  of  which  would 
be  to  find  opportunities  for  the  immigrant,  and  some 
thoughtful  legislature  added  the  words  'and  others.' 
That  division  maintained  an  office  in  the  Barge  Office 
at  New  York.  Here  and  there  it  was  able  to  place 
the  immigrant  in  some  agricultural  pursuit. 

"There  was  a  disposition  on  the  part  of  labor  in 
industrial  pursuits  to  fear  the  placement  of  those 
workmen  in  industrial  occupations  and  to  fear  the 
competition  of  those  men.  To  my  mind  the  fear  was 


RAILROADING  IN  IOWA  99 

based  on  a  misconception  of  the  economic  conditions. 
I  have  more  fear — and  I  may  say  that  while  I  was 
myself  engaged  in  actual  physical  work  I  had  more 
fear — of  the  man  who  had  no  job  than  I  did  of  the 
competition  of  the  man  who  did  have  a  job.  The 
placing  of  those  men  in  industrial  pursuits  was  more 
beneficial  to  the  man  who  worked  for  wages  than  al- 
lowing them  to  congregate  in  our  large  cities  and  in- 
dustrial centers  without  any  occupation  whatever. 

"However,  the  little  division  struggled  along  for 
years,  placing  a  few  hundreds  of  people  annually,  un- 
til the  Department  of  Labor  was  created,  a  little  more 
than  five  years  ago,  and  we  came  to  the  conclusion 
then  that  the  activities  of  that  division  ought  to  be 
extended.  That  also  added  but  one  thought  to  the 
thoughts  that  had  gone  before.  We  believed  that  the 
field  of  the  division  should  be  made  broader  and  we 
took  steps  to  accomplish  that  end.  Then  came  the 
period  of  depression  in  1914,  with  millions  of  workers 
out  of  employment ;  and  at  the  same  time  the  farmers 
in  the  great  wheat  belt  in  the  Middle  West  needed  tens 
of  thousands,  even  hundreds  of  thousands  of  workers. 
But  the  worker  idle  in  the  city  did  not  know  of  the 
opportunity  for  work  in  the  wheat  fields.  We  then 
conceived  the  idea  of  bringing  the  information  to  the 
idle  workers  that  employment  was  to  be  had  for  a 
brief  period  of  time  in  the  harvest  fields.  We  had 
no  funds  with  which  to  reach  the  harvest  fields;  but 
we  gave  them  the  information,  and  as  a  result  the 
farmers  saved  their  crops. 

' '  That  turned  my  attention  to  another  phase  of  the 
problem  and  the  possibility  of  putting  into  operation 
what  to  me  for  years  had  been  a  dream,  and  to  me 


100  W.  B.  WILSON 

seems  yet  but  purely  a  dream.  Time  and  again  I 
have  presented  the  thought  to  different  bodies  of  men ; 
time  and  again  we  have  sent  representatives  of  the 
Department  of  Labor  out  with  the  idea  of  putting 
into  practical  operation  the  dream  which  I  believed 
would  remedy  that  phase  of  the  problem.  Why 
could  there  not  be  a  complete  change  of  work  for 
wage  earners  during  some  period  of  the  year?  Why 
could  this  not  be  put  into  actual  operation  in  our 
great  specialized  crop  sections  of  the  country  in  har- 
vesting wheat,  in  picking  cotton,  in  gathering  fruit, 
and  the  other  specialized  farming  elements  that  are 
seasonal  in  their  nature  ?  I  have  hoped  that  some  day 
it  would  be  put  into  operation,  and  I  feel  that  now, 
when  we  need  the  fullest  efficiency  of  our  labor  power, 
something  might  be  done  to  make  that  dream  of  mine 
come  true. 

' '  We  are  now  engaged  in  a  great  conflict ;  how  long 
it  is  going  to  last  no  one  knows,  so  far  as  time  is  con- 
cerned. The  nearest  that  we  can  come  to  stating  a 
definite  conclusion  of  the  conflict  is  that  it  will  come 
to  an  end  when  Prussian  militarism  has  been  crushed 
and  our  own  institutions  are  free  from  any  menace 
from  them.  That  may  be  within  a  year  or  two  years ; 
it  may  not  be  for  a  long  period  of  time,  and  we  must 
prepare  not  merely  for  the  termination  in  a  short 
period  of  time,  but  we  must  prepare  for  the  continua- 
tion of  the  war  until  our  children  have  the  same  op- 
portunity of  working  out  their  own  destiny  in  their 
own  way  that  we  have  in  working  out  our  destiny  in 
our  own  way. 

"I  am  reminded  by  the  situation  over  on  the  other 
side  of  an  anecdote  that  I  once  heard  of  a  canny 


RAILROADING  IN  IOWA  101 

Scotch  farmer  who  had  a  horse  for  sale,  and  he  ad- 
vertised it.  A  man  from  the  city  came  out  in  response 
to  the  advertisement  to  look  at  the  animal.  He  ex- 
amined it  all  over  carefully.  He  was  a  lover  of  horses, 
and  he  found  it  to  be  clean  of  limb,  to  be  sound  of 
wind,  not  a  blotch  or  blemish  upon  it  anywhere.  He 
was  well  pleased  with  its  appearance  and  asked  the 
farmer  the  price  of  the  animal.  The  farmer  said  to 
him:  'I  see  you  are  very  well  pleased  with  the  horse, 
but  I  want  to  be  honest  with  you,  the  horse  has  two 
faults.  I  am  willing  to  tell  you  what  one  of  the  faults 
is  before  you  buy  the  horse,  and  I  will  tell  you  the 
other  fault  after  you  have  bought  it.'  The  man 
from  the  city  thought  that  a  very  fair  proposition. 
Before  buying  the  horse  he  asked  what  the  first  fault 
was,  and  the  farmer  said:  'The  first  fault  is  that 
when  he  is  out  in  the  pasture  he  is  awfully  hard  to 
«ateh,'  The  man  from  the  city  said  that  that  would 
not  make  any  difference  to  him ;  he  was  going  to  take 
the  horse  to  the  city  where  it  would  be  hitched  up  to 
his  carriage,  or  if  not,  would  be  tied  in  the  stable,  and 
so  the  fact  that  it  was  difficult  to  catch  would  make  no 
difference  to  him.  Having  bought  the  horse,  he  said 
to  the  farmer, '  Now,  what  is  the  other  fault  1 '  '  Well, ' 
said  the  canny  Scot,  '  the  other  fault  is  that  after  you 
have  oaught  him  he  isn't  worth  a  d — n.'  " 


CHAPTEB  XII 
THE  GREAT  STRIKE  OP  1902 

MR.  WILSON  enjoys  telling  the  story  of  his  first 
strike,  when  he  was  a  boy  working  in  a  coal  mine.  He 
had  organized  a  debating  society,  and  later  a  union 
among  the  boys,  and  was  always  their  leader.  They 
were,  therefore,  ready  to  follow  his  guidance  when, 
their  wages  having  been  reduced,  he  decided  it  was 
time  to  do  something.  He  was  spokesman  for  the 
boys,  and  went  to  the  foreman,  telling  him  the  boys 
had  decided  to  strike  unless  their  former  wages  were 
restored  to  them.  The  foreman  looked  at  him  quizzi- 
cally for  a  moment,  then  he  settled  that  strike  then 
and  there  by  taking  the  future  Secretary  of  Labor 
across  his  knees  and  giving  him  a  sound  spanking, 
while  his  fellow  would-be  strikers  scurried  away  to 
a  safe  place. 

"Ever  since  that  day,"  Mr.  Wilson  said,  with  a 
twinkle  in  his  eye,  "I  have  not  believed  in  the  use  of 
force  to  settle  labor  disputes.  Instead  of  the  use  of 
force,  what  we  need  is  the  spirit  of  justice,  of  fair 
play,  that  will  result  in  a  permanent  industrial 
peace. ' ' 

While  Mr.  Wilson  was  Secretary-Treasurer  of  the 
United  Mine  Workers  of  America  he  always  used  his 
influence  in  trying  to  settle  labor  troubles  by  con- 
ferences between  the  operators  and  miners,  and  ap- 
proved an  order  to  strike  only  as  a  last  resort.  He  held 
this  position  in  the  United  Mine  Workers  of  America 

102 


THE  GREAT  STRIKE  OF  1902  103 

from  1900  to  1908,  in  the  meantime,  in  1906,  having 
been  elected  to  Congress. 

The  United  Mine  Workers  of  America  is  the 
strongest  labor  organization  among  coal  miners.  It 
started  in  1890  with  only  a  few  members,  but  its 
growth  has  been  phenomenal.  Miners  and  operators 
agree  that  its  success  as  an  organization  in  advanc- 
ing wages  has  been  wonderful.  Mine  owners  them- 
selves also  admit  that  it  is  managed  by  capable,  con- 
servative men,  in  a  way  that  has  proved  as  satisfac- 
tory to  them  as  to  the  miners.  This  union  does  not 
insist  that  none  but  members  shall  have  employment, 
and  it  uses  no  coercion  to  bring  non-union  men  into 
the  ranks.  Colored  miners  are  also  admitted  and  even 
hold  offices  in  the  local  unions. 

Whenever  possible,  the  United  Mine  Workers '  Union 
promotes  the  formation  of  agreements  between  em- 
ployers and  employees  as  organizations  for  the 
purpose  of  determining  wages,  hours,  and  other  con- 
ditions of  labor.  Joint  inter-State  conferences  are 
held  for  the  purpose,  when  occasion  arises,  which  may 
be  attended  by  any  number  of  operators  and  miners, 
but  in  which  each  side  and  each  State  has  a  limited 
and  equal  number  of  votes.  A  unanimous  vote  is  neces- 
sary to  every  important  decision.  If  an  agreement  is 
not  reached,  the  question  is  referred  to  successively 
higher  authorities  until  the  State  officials  of  the 
United  Mine  Workers  and  the  commissioner  of  the 
Operators'  Association  are  called  in.  The  national 
officers  of  the  United  Mine  Workers  are  not  often 
asked  to  help,  and  in  many  cases  State  agreements 
have  'been  accomplished. 

It  is  hardly  possible  to  understand  the  great  strike 


104  W.  B.  WILSON 

of  1902  without  a  glance  at  the  previous  strike  of 
1900,  and  some  notice  of  conditions  among  the  miners. 
The  United  Mine  Workers  was  originally  a  bitumi- 
nous organization,  but  by  1894  the  anthracite  miners 
began  to  come  in  and  by  1900  the  Schuylkill  District 
in  Pennsylvania  was  fairly  well  organized.  After  the 
revival  of  business  succeeding  the  panic  of  1893-1897, 
the  pay  of  bituminous  miners  was  twice  advanced 
prior  to  1900,  while  the  hard  coal  workers  were  still 
suffering  the  conditions  which  the  panic  had  imposed. 
The  anthracite  mine  operators  did  not  consider  that 
it  would  be  a  fair  thing  to  raise  the  wages  of  their 
workmen  as  the  bituminous  owners  had  done,  and  the 
anthracite  miners  became  more  and  more  discon- 
tented. 

In  August,  1900,  therefore,  the  officers  of  the 
United  Mine  Workers  called  a  convention  to  devise 
means  and  make  plans  for  a  joint  convention  of 
operators  and  miners  at  some  future  date,  to  arrange 
for  a  readjustment  of  the  price  of  mining  and  scale 
of  wages,  to  discuss  the  system  of  docking  and  the 
practice  of  compelling  miners  to  load  more  than  2,240 
pounds  of  coal  for  a  ton. 

This  convention  met  and  issued  invitations  to  the 
operators  to  meet  the  miners'  representatives  in  joint 
conference.  No  notice  was  taken  of  this  invitation. 
The  miners'  representatives  then  wrote  to  the  national 
executive  board  for  permission  to  strike  within  ten 
days.  The  board  was  unwilling  to  sanction  a  strike 
until  every  other  means  had  been  exhausted,  and  di- 
rected President  Mitchell  and  Mr.  Wilson  to  make  an- 
other effort  to  bring  about  a  joint  conference.  To 
their  communications  stating  that  a  strike  was  im- 


THE  GREAT  STRIKE  OF  1902  105 

minent  and  asking  that  the  matter  at  issue  be  sub- 
mitted to  a  board  of  arbitration,  the  anthracite  com- 
panies made  no  reply.  Then  the  national  executive 
board  ordered  a  strike  to  commence  September  17, 
1900. 

A  hundred  and  thirty-two  thousand  mine  workers 
promptly  laid  down  their  tools  on  the  day  appointed, 
greatly  surprising  the  mine  owners,  who  had  believed 
that  their  usually  docile  and  obedient  workers  would 
refuse  to  obey  the  strike  order.  The  contest  continued 
two  or  three  weeks,  when  one  of  the  largest  companies 
in  the  region  posted  notices  offering  an  advance  of 
ten  per  cent.  Other  companies  followed  with  similar 
offers.  The  strikers  called  a  convention,  which  voted, 
on  the  recommendation  of  a  committee  of  which  John 
Mitchell  was  chairman,  to  accept  the  advance,  pro- 
vided the  operators  would  agree  to  continue  it  until 
the  following  April  1,  to  abolish  the  sliding  scale  in 
the  Lehigh  and  Schuylkill  districts,  and  to  agree  to 
discuss  other  grievances  with  the  committee  of  their 
own  employees. 

John  Mitchell 's  wise  management  of  this  strike  was 
greatly  appreciated  by  all  classes  of  people.  He  re- 
turned to  his  office  in  Indianapolis  assured  of  the  high 
regard  and  gratitude  of  the  people  of  the  anthracite 
region. 

Virtually  all  the  anthracite  mined  in  the  United 
States  comes  from  a  small  area  of  four  hundred  and 
ninety-six  square  miles  in  nine  counties  in  Pennsyl- 
vania, there  being  only  insignificant  deposits  in  Col- 
orado and  New  Mexico.  Five  of  these  counties,  Lack- 
awanna,  Luzerne,  Schuylkill,  Northumberland,  and 
Carbon,  produce  ninety-six  per  cent,  of  the  total  out- 


106  W.  B.  WILSON 

put.  The  other  four  counties  are  Susquehanna,  Dau- 
phin, Columbia,  and  Sullivan. 

Conditions  in  the  anthracite  coal  fields  are  different 
from  those  in  the  bituminous  coal  regions.  The  bi- 
tuminous miner  spends  more  time  inside  the  mine  than 
does  the  hard  coal  worker,  and  also  at  harder  work. 
He  frequently  must  dig  lying  on  his  side  or  even  on 
his  back,  and  usually  finishes  the  process  of  blowing 
down  his  coal,  cleaning  and  loading  it  himself.  In 
most  cases  the  anthracite  miner  simply  drills  and 
blows  down  his  coal,  leaving  his  laborer  to  clean  and 
load  it.  He  has  to  pay  this  laborer  himself,  usually 
about  one-third  of  his  own  earnings,  but  even  at  that 
it  was  claimed  by  operators  at  that  time  that  he  re- 
ceived on  the  average  higher  pay  than  many  responsi- 
ble employees  carrying  the  coal.  Besides,  this  work 
takes  only  a  few  hours  of  his  time,  after  which  he 
generally  takes  an  airing  above  ground;  and  he  can 
work  only  when  the  breakers  are  running,  which  is 
usually  but  about  seven  hours  and  a  half  a  day. 

Of  course,  the  dangerous  character  of  the  miner's 
work  must  be  considered,  and  the  fact  that  he  does  not 
have  steady  employment  throughout  the  year.  In  ad- 
dition to  this,  an  anthracite  miner  must  have  distinc- 
tive knowledge  and  ability.  He  can  attain  proficiency 
in  his  vocation  only  by  years  of  experience.  As  Pres- 
ident Baer,  of  the  Reading  System  said,  in  one  of  his 
lette'rs :  "In  the  anthracite  fields  a  bituminous  miner 
cannot  be  employed,  whatever  his  skill."  But  his 
skill  does  not  fit  him  for  any  other  occupation.  When 
in  the  mine  he  is  a  superior  workman  and  has  a  right 
to  demand  wages  accordingly;  but  if  he  leaves  the 
mine  he  becomes  an  unskilled  workman  and  can 


THE  GREAT  STRIKE  OF  1902  107 

claim  wages  only  as  such.  Besides,  most  mining  towns 
are  more  or  less  isolated,  so  that,  with  no  other  in- 
dustries present  in  the  place,  the  miner  has  not  op- 
portunity to  find  other  employment  when  he  is  laid 
off.  As  has  been  said,  miners  rarely  work  more  than 
about  two  hundred  days  in  the  year,  so  that  a  living 
wage  must  mean  more  per  day  than  if  they  could  be 
occupied  as  they  might  be  in  a  factory  or  other  in- 
dustrial plant. 

After  the  settlement  of  the  1900  strike,  when  the 
miners  received  an  increase  of  ten  per  cent.,  matters 
went  on  smoothly  for  a  time,  until  the  miners  began  to 
feel  that,  besides  the  question  of  wages,  there  were 
other  grievances  that  should  be  settled.  Accordingly 
at  the  thirteenth  annual  convention  of  the  United 
Mine  Workers,  held  in  January,  1902,  at  Indianapolis, 
a  resolution  was  adopted  directing  President  Mitchell 
and  the  Executive  Board  to  co-operate  with  the  of- 
ficers and  members  of  the  anthracite  districts  to  bring 
about  a  conference  between  operators  and  miners. 
The  United  Mine  Workers  pledged  themselves  to  aid 
their  anthracite  brothers  with  all  possible  assistance 
in  case  such  a  conference  should  fail  and  a  strike  be 
inaugurated. 

Conventions  were  held  in  Scranton  and  Shamokin 
which  voted  to  send  invitations  to  the  operators  to  meet 
them  in  joint  conference,  but  the  operators  refused  to 
meet  the  miners'  representatives  or  to  recognize  the 
United  Mine  Workers'  organization  in  any  discussion 
of  grievance.  A  statement  was  then  issued  to  the  pub- 
lic, declaring  that  the  anthracite  miners  intended  to 
strike  "to  secure  their  just  and  reasonable  claims." 
Before  inaugurating  the  strike,  however,  the  conveu- 


108  ^T.  B.  WILSON 

tion  appealed  to  the  Industrial  Department  of  the 
National  Civic  Federation  to  use  its  influence  with  the 
coal  companies  to  try  to  adjust  grievances.  President 
Mitchell  therefore  wired  to  Senator  Hanna,  then 
Chairman  of  the  Industrial  Department,  as  follows: 

"Anthracite  mine  workers  have  failed  in  their  ef- 
forts to  effect  settlement  of  wage  scale,  and  have  de- 
clared for  a  suspension  of  work,  to  take  effect  upon 
date  to  be  designated  by  district  officers.  I  am  di- 
rected to  appeal  to  Industrial  Department  of  Civic 
Federation  for  its  intervention  to  avert  the  threatened 
conflict.  If  you  decide  to  call  a  special  meeting  of  ex- 
ecutive committee,  kindly  wire  date  and  place  of  meet- 
ing." 

In  response  to  this  appeal,  three  joint  conferences 
were  held,  the  third  after  an  adjournment  of  thirty 
days;  but  these  conferences  absolutely  failed.  The 
operators  refused  to  consider  the  demands  of  the 
miners'  delegates.  Still  President  Mitchell  and  Sec- 
retary Wilson  were  determined  to  avert  a  strike  if 
possible.  Under  their  influence,  the  executive  board 
sent  a  lengthy  telegram  to  the  presidents  of  the  coal 
carrying  railroads,  stating  the  case  carefully  and  sug- 
gesting that  a  committee  of  five  from  the  Industrial 
Branch  of  the  National  Civic  Federation  should  ar- 
bitrate and  decide  any  or  all  of  the  questions  under 
dispute,  their  decision  to  be  binding  upon  both  par- 
ties and  effective  for  a  year.  Further  than  this,  they 
proposed  that,  if  the  first  proposition  were  not  ac- 
ceptable, a  committee  composed  of  Archbishop  Ire- 
land, Bishop  Potter,  and  one  other  person  that  these 
two  might  select,  be  authorized  to  investigate  wages 
and  conditions  in  the  anthracite  regions,  and  promised 


THE  GREAT  STRIKE  OF  1902  109 

to  abide  by  the  decisions  of  this  committee, — that  is, 
if  the  committee  decided  that  the  anthracite  mine 
workers  received  sufficient  wages  to  enable  them  to 
support  their  families  in  a  manner  consistent  with 
American  standards,  these  workers  would  withdraw 
their  claims  for  higher  wages  and  better  conditions, 
provided  the  anthracite  mine  operators  would  agree 
to  comply  with  any  recommendations  the  committee 
should  make  regarding  wages  and  conditions  of  labor 
among  their  employees. 

The  operators  declined  to  consider  either  of  these 
propositions.  Therefore,  the  anthracite  miners  or- 
dered a  temporary  suspension  to  take  effect  May  9th, 
and  on  the  following  Monday  140,000  miners  stopped 
work.  Two  days  later  a  convention  was  held  at  Hazle- 
ton  and  the  suspension  was  declared  permanent.  Of 
the  811  votes  cast  on  this  question,  461 1-4  were  for  the 
strike,  349  3-4  against,  a  majority  of  111  1-2  votes,  or 
57  per  cent,  of  the  convention.  Thus  the  great  strike, 
in  spite  of  the  determined  efforts  of  the  great  leader 
of  the  United  Mine  Workers,  was  inaugurated.  This 
Hazleton  convention  also  petitioned  President  Mit- 
chell to  call  a  meeting  of  the  bituminous  miners  for 
the  purpose  of  considering  a  sympathetic  strike. 

Following  these  instructions,  Mr.  Wilson,  Secre- 
tary of  the  United  Mine  Workers'  Union,  called  a  na- 
tional convention,  which  met  in  Indianapolis  July  17. 
These  were  critical  days.  If  this  convention  should 
call  out  the  four  hundred  thousand  miners  of  the 
United  States,  misery  and  suffering  unspeakable  would 
come  upon  the  lives  of  many  innocent  people.  Besides 
this,  the  public  would  place  themselves  against  the 
trades  union  movement  and  the  cause  of  labor  would 


110  W.  B.  WILSON 

receive  a  setback  which  it  would  be  difficult  to  over- 
come. Most  people  in  the  country  were  sympathetic 
with  the  anthracite  miners  in  their  efforts  to  get  liv- 
ing wages  and  better  conditions  for  themselves  and 
their  families,  but  they  had  no  patience  with  a  sym- 
pathetic strike  which  should  call  out  other  miners 
who  had  less  reason  to  strike. 

President  Mitchell  spoke  very  strongly  against  this 
proposed  strike  of  the  bituminous  workers.  He  stated 
that  he  had  never  known  of  one  solitary  sympathetic 
strike  of  any  magnitude  that  had  been  successful, 
but  that  in  such  cases  the  result  had  been  ignominious 
and  crushing  defeat,  not  only  for  the  branch  of  in- 
dustry originally  involved,  but  also  for  the  branches 
participating  through  sympathy.  He  further  said: 

"It  has  been  the  proud  boast  of  the  United  Mine 
Workers  of  America  that  during  the  past  few  years, 
since  our  organization  'became  a  power  in  the  labor 
world,  contracts  based  solely  upon  the  honor  and  good 
faith  of  our  union  have  under  the  most  trying  circum- 
stances been  kept  inviolate ;  and  in  this  supreme  crisis 
a  failure  to  live  up  to  the  high  standard  that  has  made 
our  union  pre-eminent  among  organizations  of  labor 
would  prove  a  substantiation  of  all  the  charges  and 
allegations  made  against  us  by  our  enemies,  and  would 
confirm,  beyond  the  possibility  of  refutation,  the 
specious  argument  of  the  anthracite  owners  that  the 
United  Mine  Workers  of  America  is  an  irresponsible 
and  unsafe  body  with  which  to  deal. ' ' 

The  convention  very  quickly  voted  unanimously 
that,  since  the  bituminous  miners  had  entered  into  a 
contract  to  work  for  their  employers  for  a  year  upon 
the  terms  agreed  upon  the  previous  January,  they 


THE  GREAT  STRIKE  OF  1902  111 

were  in  honor  bound  to  stand  by  the  agreement.  The 
American  people  applauded  this  decision  and  showed 
their  appreciation  'by  contributions  as  well  as  words. 
Gifts  came  pouring  into  the  treasury  for  the  help  of 
the  strikers  in  their  enforced  idleness.  This  money 
was  wisely  applied  for  the  relief  of  the  needy,  whether 
they  belonged  to  the  union  or  not,  through  relief  com- 
mittees in  the  local  unions. 

In  this  strike  the  following  were  the  demands  made 
by  the  strikers : 

Twenty  per  cent,  increase  in  rates  paid  for  coal 
mined  by  the  ton;  a  decrease  in  the  working  day 
from  ten  hours  to  eight  without  increase  in  pay ;  and 
all  coal  mined  to  be  weighed,  2,240  pounds  always  to 
constitute  a  ton. 

The  strikers  claimed  that  miners  working  by  the 
piece  were  often  docked  for  impurities,  such  as  slate, 
dirt,  and  rock,  in  their  coal,  that  the  rate  of  docking 
was  too  high,  and  that  the  men  who  fixed  it  were 
arbitrary  and  not  just  in  their  decisions.  They 
claimed  that  cars  supposed  to  hold  a  ton  seemed  to 
"grow"  so  that  a  miner  would  have  to  put  in  more 
than  a  ton  to  fill  them.  They  estimated  that,  by 
weighing  all  loads  of  coal  and  increasing  the  miner's 
pay  twenty  per  cent.,  the  loss,  usually  considered  be- 
tween twenty  and  thirty  per  cent.,  would  be  divided. 
As  to  the  decrease  of  the  working  day,  they  claimed 
that  by  this  proposed  change  the  miners  would  have 
work  for  two  hundred  and  forty  or  two  hundred  and 
fifty  days  of  eight  hours  each  instead  of  two  hundred 
days  at  ten  hours  each,  and  that  this  would  not  ma- 
terially decrease  the  output  of  the  operators. 

It  is  only  fair  to  state  the  operators'  side  of  the 


112  W.  #.  WILSON 

case.  They  rejected  these  demands  because,  first,  the 
miners'  wages  had  been  adjusted  by  the  agreement  of 
September,  1900,  and  they  considered  there  had  been 
no  just  cause  for  complaint  since  then.  They  claimed 
that  weighing  coal  at  the  mines  would  mean  the  in- 
stallation of  plants  for  the  purpose,  which  would  add 
materially  to  the  running  expenses,  and  besides,  they 
did  not  consider  this  practicable.  As  to  the  increase 
in  the  size  of  the  cars  used,  the  system  was  to  pay 
for  loss  according  to  the  labor  needed  to  mine  the 
coal  in  particular  veins.  If  a  vein  was  large  and 
thick,  a  larger  car  was  necessarily  used,  the  cubic 
capacity  of  the  car  being  decided  by  the  nature  of 
the  working.  With  regard  to  the  length  of  the  day, 
they  claimed  that  in  slack  times  some  men  must  be 
laid  off,  while  running  expenses  continued,  even 
though  only  about  sixty  per  cent,  of  the  capacity  of 
the  mines  was  required  to  fill  orders.  Besides  this, 
the  miner  could  work  only  while  the  breakers  were 
running,  so  his  day  was  not  long.  Some  of  the  oper- 
ators conceded  that  the  men  had  a  just  grievance  in 
1900,  but  they  added  that  an  extra  demand  for  labor 
found  the  men  unwilling  to  respond,  and  that  the 
work  was  often  interrupted  by  picnics,  excursions, 
and  the  like. 

Meanwhile,  the  strike  continued.  Deprived  of  their 
regular  means  of  support,  the  miners  and  their  fam- 
ilies had  to  depend  on  the  relief  given  by  the  unions. 
Often  this  was  irregular  and  insufficient,  entailing 
great  suffering,  especially  on  the  women  and  children. 
As  is  usual  in  places  where  a  strike  is  going  on,  roughs 
and  even  criminals  were  attracted  and  encouraged 
by  the  lower  class  of  strikers,  so  there  is  no  doubt 


THE  GREAT  STRIKE  OF  1902          113 

that  to  a  certain  extent  lawlessness  prevailed  in  some 
sections.  The  mining  companies  declared  that  a  reign 
of  terror  existed  in  the  coal  field,  and  that  most  of 
the  strikers  were  ready  to  return  to  work  at  the  old 
wages  if  they  could  be  given  military  protection.  In 
response  to  their  excited  demands,  the  Governor  of 
Pennsylvania  ordered  out  the  whole  National  Guard, 
consisting  of  ten  thousand  men,  to  protect  the  miners 
who  desired  to  return  to  work.  It  was  found,  how- 
ever, that  a  number  of  non-union  men,  considering 
the  presence  of  the  soldiers  an  insult,  left  off  work 
and  joined  the  strikers.  A  Citizens'  Alliance  was  also 
formed  with  the  alleged  purpose  of  preserving  law 
and  order  in  the  strike  region.  President  Mitchell 
declared  that  the  real  purpose  of  this  Alliance  was  to 
destroy  the  miners'  union  and  to  make  useless  the 
efforts  of  this  organization  to  uplift  the  standards  of 
citizenship  by  getting  higher  wages  and  better  con- 
ditions of  employment. 

Judging  by  the  liberal  contributions  of  money  that- 
poured  into  the  treasury  of  the  union,  the  strikers 
might  have  prolonged  the  strike  indefinitely,  so  far  as 
they  themselves  were  concerned.  Months  passed  and 
no  settlement  was  made.  But  winter  was  coming  on, 
and  the  whole  country  would  suffer  if  the  miners  re- 
mained idle.  Business  interests,  of  course,  had  felt 
the  strain  from  the  first,  and  unless  coal  were  forth- 
coming great  hardship  would  come  upon  the  general 
public,  especially  the  poor  in  the  cities. 

President  Roosevelt  determined  that  a  way  must 
be  found  to  end  the  strike.  He,  therefore,  sent  tele- 
grams to  the  presidents  of  the  anthracite  companies 
and  to  Mr.  Mitchell,  the  President  of  the  United  Mine 


114  W.  B.  WILSON 

Workers,  asking  them  to  meet  him  at  the  White 
House.  All  those  summoned  were  present  at  the 
conference.  In  his  address  to  them,  the  President 
disclaimed  any  legal  or  official  right  to  interfere,  but 
stated  that,  considering  the  urgency  and  terrible  na- 
ture of  the  catastrophe  impending,  which  involved 
not  only  the  miners  but  the  whole  people,  he  felt  it 
his  duty  to  use  his  personal  influence  "to  bring  to 
an  end  a  situation  which  has  become  literally  in- 
tolerable." He  asked  them  to  meet  "upon  the  com- 
mon plane  of  the  necessities  of  the  public, ' '  appealing 
to  their  patriotism,  "to  the  spirit  that  sinks  personal 
considerations  and  makes  individual  sacrifices  for  the 
general  good." 

Mr.  Mitchell  replied  that  his  organization  was  will- 
ing to  meet  the  operators  and  try  to  adjust  the  dif- 
ferences. If  that  were  not  possible,  the  President 
might  name  a  tribunal  to  determine  the  issue  and 
"if  the  gentlemen  representing  the  operators  will  ac- 
cept the  award  or  decision  of  such  a  tribunal,  the 
miners  will  willingly  acept  it,  even  though  it  should 
be  against  their  claims." 

After  an  intermission,  during  which  each  side  pre- 
pared carefully  written  statements,  the  delegates  re- 
assembled. Mr.  George  F.  Baer,  President  of  the 
Beading  Railway  System,  addressed  the  President, 
claiming  that  thousands  of  men  willing  to  work  in 
the  mines  were  able  to  do  so  only  under  guard,  that 
they  were  "abused,  assaulted,  injured,  and  maltreated 
by  the  United  Mine  Workers."  He  described  the 
"reign  of  terror"  in  the  coal  fields,  claimed  that  coal 
mined  was  dynamited  by  Mitchell 's  orders,  and  stated 
that  he  believed  that,  through  the  presence  of  the 


THE  GREAT  STRIKE  OF  1902  115 

troops,  the  power  of  the  law  was  gradually  asserting 
itself  and  that  order  would  soon  be  restored  so  that 
coal  to  meet  the  public  wants  might  be  mined.  He 
declined  Mr.  Mitchell's  offer  to  "let  us  work  on  terms 
he  names,"  declaring  Mr.  Mitchell  had  no  right  to 
come  from  Illinois  to  dictate  terms.  He  said  the 
operators  would  continue  the  wages  existing  at  the 
time  of  the  beginning  of  the  strike  and  would,  at  each 
colliery,  take  up  and  adjust  any  grievance,  and  if  this 
did  not  prove  satisfactory,  would  submit  such  griev- 
ance to  the  Court  of  Common  Pleas  in  said  district 
for  final  determination. 

Mr.  Mitchell  reiterated  his  suggestion  that  the  mat- 
ter be  referred  to  a  tribunal  appointed  by  the  Presi- 
dent. Other  railroad  presidents  and  representatives 
corroborated  Mr.  Baer  's  remarks  as  to  the  lawlessness 
in  the  coal  regions.  Mr.  Mitchell  declared  that  much 
of  these  reports  was  untrue.  Instead  of  twenty  mur- 
ders, as  stated,  he  claimed  that  there  had  been  only 
seven,  three  of  which  were  committed  by  the  coal 
and  iron  police.  He  frankly  admitted  that  there  had 
been  lawlessness,  but  claimed  that  a  large  portion  of 
such  lawlessness  had  been  caused  by  criminals  brought 
into  the  coal  regions  to  recruit  the  coal  and  iron 
police.  He  closed  his  statement  with  the  remark: 
"I  want  to  say,  Mr.  President,  that  I  feel  keenly  the 
attacks  made  on  me  and  my  people ;  but  I  came  here 
with  the  intention  of  doing  nothing  and  saying  noth- 
ing that  would  prevent  a  reconciliation." 

The  representatives  of  the  operators  absolutely  re- 
fused to  accept  Mr.  Mitchell's  suggestion,  would  not 
recognize  him  in  any  capacity  whatever,  in  the  settle- 
ment of  the  strike,  and  the  conference  adjourned  hav- 


116  W.  R  WILSON 

ing  accomplished  nothing.  President  Roosevelt  was 
greatly  disappointed,  but  not  discouraged.  He  had 
made  up  his  mind  to  find  a  way  to  end  this  strike  and 
he  wired  Mr.  Mitchell  that  if  Mr.  Mitchell  would  se- 
cure the  immediate  return  of  the  miners  to  their  re- 
spective places  of  work,  he  would  at  once  appoint  a 
commission  to  investigate  thoroughly  the  questions  at 
issue,  and  would  do  all  within  his  power  to  obtain  a 
settlement  of  those  questions  in  accordance  with  the 
report  of  the  commission.  After  conferring  with  the 
districts'  presidents,  Mr.  Mitchell  refused  this  offer, 
while  assuring  the  President  that  he  felt  keenly  the 
responsibility  and  gravity  of  the  situation. 

The  mining  companies  had  insisted,  as  Mr.  Baer 
had  stated,  that  the  presence  of  the  troops  would  end 
the  strike ;  but  the  miners  met  in  convention  in  Octo- 
ber and  voted  that  they  would  not  return  to  work 
until  the  matters  in  dispute  were  settled  by  a  board 
of  arbitration,  even  if  all  the  troops  in  the  United 
States  were  sent  into  the  anthracite  coal  field. 

The  operators  realized  that  their  cause  was  lost  and 
told  the  President  that  they  were  now  willing  to  sub- 
mit the  case  to  a  board  of  arbitration,  but  that  thir, 
board  must  be  made  up  of  members  whose  avocations 
they  should  name,  and  that  no  representative  of  or- 
ganized labor  should  be  allowed  on  the  commission. 
Mr.  Mitchell  objected  to  the  appointment  of  any  com- 
mission that  dictated  to  the  President  whom  he  should 
appoint  and  that  discriminated  against  organized 
labor ;  and  the  President  agreed  with  him.  The  oper- 
ators after  some  discussion  modified  their  views  to 
conform  to  the  suggestions  of  the  President,  and  the 
following  Commission  was  named :  Brigadier  General 


THE  GREAT  STRIKE  OF  1902  117 

John  M.  Wilson,  Judge  George  Gray,  Mr.  E.  W. 
Parker,  Mr.  E.  E.  Clark,  Mr.  Thomas  Watkins,  and 
Bishop  John  L.  Spalding;  Hon.  Carroll  D.  Wright 
was  selected  as  recorder. 

A  convention  was  at  once  called,  which  recom- 
mended the  miners  to  resume  work  at  once,  pending 
the  decision  of  the  Commission  appointed  by  the 
President,  as  seen  by  the  following  letter: 

Wilkesbarre,  Pa.,  October  21,  1902. 
Hon.  Theodore  Roosevelt, 

President  of  the  United  States, 

Washington,  D.  C. : 

Dear  Sir, — We,  the  representatives  of  the  employees  of  the 
various  coal  companies  engaged  in  operating  mines  in  the 
anthracite  coal  fields  of  Pennsylvania,  in  convention  as- 
sembled, having  under  consideration  your  telegram  of  October 
16,  1902,  addressed  to  John  Mitchell,  president  of  the  United 
Mine  Workers  of  America,  have  decided  to  accept  the 
proposition  therein  embodied  and  submit  all  the  questions  at 
issue  between  the  operators  and  mine  workers  of  the  anthra- 
cite coal  region  for  adjustment  to  the  Commission  which  you 
have  named.  In  pursuance  of  that  decision  we  shall  report 
for  work  on  Thursday  morning,  October  23,  in  the  positions 
and  working  places  occupied  by  us  prior  to  the  inauguration 
of  the  strike.  We  have  authorized  John  Mitchell,  president 
of  the  United  Mine  Workers  of  America,  with  such  assistants 
as  he  may  select,  to  represent  us  in  all  hearings  before  the 
Commission. 

JOHN  MITCHELL, 

Chairman  of   Convention. 
W.  B.  WILSON, 

Secretary   of   Convention. 

The  striking  miners,  numbering  147,000,  returned 
to  work  October  23,  1902.  The  strike  had  lasted 
twenty-three  weeks  and  three  days,  and  the  United 
Mine  Workers  claim  that  it  was  the  best  managed 


118  W.  B.  WILSON 

strike  that  ever  occurred  in  the  United  States,  and  that 
the  inevitable  lawlessness  committed  was  not  more 
than  would  have  occurred  had  the  mines  been  running 
full  time.  It  was  said  to  be  one  of  the  most  orderly 
strikes  that  ever  occurred  in  any  part  of  the  world, 
and  stamped  John  Mitchell  and  W.  B.  Wilson  as  peer- 
less leaders  of  men. 

When  President  Mitchell  was  called  in  conference 
with  the  coal  operators,  he  never  lost  his  temper  and 
paid  no  attention  to  their  rude  and  insulting  re- 
marks. Even  President  Roosevelt  became  angry 
and  rebuked  their  rudeness.  Speaking  of  these  con- 
ferences afterward,  President  Roosevelt  remarked: 
"There  was  but  one  gentleman  present,  and  I  was 
not  that  man. ' ' 

The  extraordinary  self-control  and  simple  unassum- 
ing dignity  of  Mr.  Mitchell  and  Mr.  Wilson  during 
these  trying  times  advanced  the  cause  of  American 
labor  among  the  American  people  in  all  occupations. 

The  President  of  the  United  States  invited  Mr. 
Mitchell  to  call  at  the  White  House  without  ceremony 
at  any  time  he  visited  Washington.  But  he  took  these 
honors  modestly  and  showed  no  vanity  or  pride, 
though  gratified  at  the  high  esteem  of  his  countrymen. 

At  one  of  the  celebrations  held  in  honor  of  the  great 
victory  that  the  strikers  felt  had  been  achieved, 
President  Mitchell  was  called  upon  to  speak.  He 
closed  his  remarks  as  follows: 

"The  victory  of  the  great  strike  belongs  to  the 
men  who  struck ;  but  behind  them  were  a  great  force, 
whose  names  never  got  into  the  papers.  They  are 
the  brave  women  and  children  who  endured  the  suf- 
fering without  perceptible  murmur — they  deserve  the 


THE  GREAT  STRIKE  OF  1902  119 

credit.  I  desire  to  pay  a  tribute  to  the  men,  women, 
and  children  of  the  anthracite  coal  mines. 

"I  hope  that  this  will  be  the  last  great  strike;  I 
hope  there  will  be  perpetual  peace  and  prosperity. 
But  I  shall  never  advise  our  people  to  surrender 
their  right  to  strike.  I  want  our  men  to  be  better 
workmen  than  the  non-union  men ;  I  want  our  people 
to  demonstrate  that  union  labor  is  the  best  labor. 

"I  wish  the  operators  no  enmity;  I  do  not  want 
them  to  be  our  enemies.  I  believe  if  they  understood 
our  lofty  purposes  they  would  meet  us  in  conference, 
and  the  days  of  lockouts  and  strikes  would  be  elimi- 
nated. I  desire  to  impress  on  your  minds  and  hearts 
that  the  only  safeguard  you  have  is  your  membership 
in  trades  unions.  Bear  in  mind,  if  you  are  negligent 
and  give  up  your  union,  just  so  sure  the  operators 
will  make  you  pay  for  this  strike." 

The  report  of  the  Strike  Commission  was  sent  to 
President  Roosevelt  March  18,  1903.  After  prelimi- 
nary meetings  October  24  and  27  in  "Washington,  the 
Commission  adjourned  to  meet  in  Scranton,  Penn- 
sylvania, November  14.  Before  beginning  the  hear- 
ings, the  Commission  took  seven  days  to  visit  mines 
for  the  observation  and  investigation  of  the  general 
conditions  under  which  the  miners  worked  and  lived. 
Every  facility  was  furnished  by  the  operators  for  a 
thorough  examination  of  the  mines,  breakers,  and  the 
various  machinery  for  pumping,  ventilating,  and 
carrying  on  generally  the  mining  operations. 

For  the  convenience  of  those  working  in  the  mines, 
the  Commission  heard  all  the  testimony  in  behalf  of 
the  mine  workers,  including  part  of  that  given  by 
non-union  mine  workers, — which  was  a  protest  against 
the  dictation  of  the  United  Mine  Workers  in  settling 


120  W.  B.  WILSON 

their  wages  and  conditions — in  the  city  of  Scranton. 
Then  they  adjourned  to  Philadelphia,  where  was 
heard  the  final  testimony  of  the  non-union  mine 
workers,  that  adduced  by  the  operators,  and  the  re- 
butting testimony  of  the  mine  workers.  The  pro- 
ceedings were  concluded  February  5,  and  adjourn- 
ment was  taken  until  February  9,  to  enable  the  coun- 
sel to  prepare  arguments,  to  the  hearing  of  which  a 
week  was  devoted. 

The  Commission  examined  five  hundred  and  fifty- 
eight  witnesses, — for  striking  anthracite  workers,  two 
hundred  and  forty;  for  non-union  men,  one  hundred 
and  fifty-three;  for  the  operators,  one  hundred  and 
fifty-four ;  and  those  called  by  the  Commission,  eleven. 
An  immense  mass  of  testimony  and  statistics  was  com- 
piled, including  a  long  list  of  alleged  riots,  assaults, 
etc.,  especially  among  Hungarians  in  the  Lehigh  Coal 
and  Navigation  territory.  At  the  close  of  the  hear- 
ing in  Philadelphia  the  Commission  adjourned  to 
Washington,  to  consider  the  testimony  and  deliberate 
regarding  its  findings  and  awards. 

Summed  up  briefly,  the  result  of  the  Strike  Com- 
mission was  as  follows: 

"They  awarded  an  increase  of  ten  per  cent,  above 
the  rate  paid  before  the  inauguration  of  the  strike; 
the  right  to  employ  check-weighmen  when  a  majority 
of  miners  wished  to  have  them  placed  on  the  tipples ; 
that  their  wages  should  foe  deducted  and  paid  through 
the  office  of  the  company;  that  no  person  should  be 
discriminated  against  who  is  not  a  member  of  the 
miners*  union,  and  made  provision  for  a  sliding  scale 
of  prices  to  be  governed  by  the  selling  price  of  the 
coal.  The  awards  were  to  continue  in  force  until  the 
first  of  April,  1906." 


CHAPTER  XIII 
RUNNING  FOR  CONGRESS 

IT  WAS  one  Saturday  night  in  August,  1918.  I 
had  invited  a  number  of  leading  Wellsboro  citizens 
to  meet  me  at  the  Coles  Hotel,  Wellsboro,  Pennsyl- 
vania. There  were  present  Mr.  Walter  Sherwood, 
a  leading  attorney;  Mr.  N.  R.  White,  Deputy  Inter- 
nal Revenue  Collector;  Postmaster  0.  H.  Davis,  Mr. 
H.  H.  Button,  Mr.  Harry  N.  Sherwood,  Mr.  John  C. 
Bradley,  and  several  others  whom  I  cannot  at  this 
moment  recall.  I  told  the  group  that  I  was  writing 
the  story  of  Mr.  Wilson's  life,  and  had  invited  them 
to  the  hotel  so  that  I  might  get  from  them  some  facts 
and  suggestions.  Of  course  they  told  me  many  pa- 
thetic stories  about  the  struggles  of  Mr.  Wilson  dur- 
ing many,  many  years,  and  also  of  his  most  unselfish 
and  kindly  disposition  through  it  all.  But,  having 
heard  these  stories  before,  I  pushed  along  to  more 
recent  history. 

Suddenly  Walter  Sherwood  exclaimed: 
"Well,  Mr.  Babson,  I  think  we  can  best  serve  you 
by  telling  how  William  B.  Wilson  came  to  go  to 
Congress.  This,  to  my  mind,  is  the  great  romance 
of  his  life.  In  this,  he  accomplished  a  feat  which 
never  was  accomplished  before,  nor  has  it  been  since, 
the  only  other  Democratic  Representative  in  Congress 
selected  from  this  district  since  the  Civil  War  being 
my  father,  who  was  elected  and  served  one  term  dur- 
ing Grant's  Administration.  Men,  let  us  tell  Mr.  Bab- 
son  that  whole  story  about  W.  B.  Wilson's  campaign." 

121 


122  W.  B.  WILSON 

The  group  seemed  much  delighted  with  the  idea, 
and  the  rest  of  the  evening  was  spent  in  telling  me 
facts  and  incidents  of  that  campaign  which  still  stands 
out  as  the  great  event  of  the  Fifteenth  Congressional 
District  of  Pennsylvania. 

The  Fifteenth  Congressional  District  consisted  of 
four  counties,  Lycoming,  Clinton,  Potter,  and  Tioga, 
the  last  being  the  county  in  which  Mr.  Wilson  lived. 
These  counties  had  always  been  Republican,  and  the 
Fifteenth  Congressional  District  was  looked  upon  by 
the  Republican  leaders  of  Pennsylvania  as  one  of  their 
strongholds.  Moreover,  the  Congressmen  from  this 
district  had  always  been  men  of  means.  They  had. 
money  to  spend  not  only  in  being  elected,  but  in  tak- 
ing care  of  their  constituents  after  the  election.  They 
had  been  men  who  continually  spent  more  than  their 
salaries.  To  run  against  them  was  something  that 
even  men  of  wealth  dared  not  do.  Hence,  for  W.  B. 
Wilson,  without  a  penny  and  with  all  the  great  cor- 
porations in  the  district  against  him,  to  attempt  this 
was  beyond  comprehension. 

The  Congressman  from  the  Fifteenth  District  at 
that  time  was  Elias  Deemer.  He  was  then  serving 
a  third  term  and  was  a  candidate  for  a  fourth.  He 
was  a  millionaire  lumberman,  residing  in  Williams- 
port,  the  largest  city  in  the  district,  and  owned  a 
great  deal  of  property  and  had  many  working  for 
him  in  his  lumbering  operations.  It  was  said  that 
it  would  be  impossible  to  beat  him.  Certainly  it 
seemed  so.  Deemer  had  a  well  developed  organization 
in  every  one  of  the  four  counties  in  the  district;  in 
fact,  he  had  two  or  three  strong  men  in  each  of  the 
voting  precincts  in  the  district,  and  had  another 


RUNNING  FOE  CONGRESS  123 

corps  of  men  traveling  continuously  during  the  cam- 
paign. 

Mr.  Wilson  virtually  faced  the  impossible,  but 
he  went  at  it  with  a  will.  He  went  from  town  to 
town,  holding  meetings  and  telling  the  people  frankly 
what  he  stood  for  and  what  he  would  do  if  they 
selected  him  as  their  representative.  He  held  many 
outdoor  meetings  and  many  meetings  in  grange  halls 
and  school  houses.  His  simplicity  of  manner,  hon- 
esty of  purpose,  and  undaunted  courage  attracted 
many  independent  voters  to  his  side,  and  notwith- 
standing that  he  had  no  funds  to  build  up  an  organi- 
zation or  hire  workers,  he  was  elected.  Truly  it  is 
a  romantic  story,  how  Wilson,  a  Democrat  and  a  poor 
man,  with  everything  against  him,  was  able  to  defeat 
Deemer,  a  rich  man  and  a  Republican,  in  a  strong 
Republican  district.  He  was  the  first  Democrat,  as 
already  said,  with  one  exception,  elected  to  Congress 
from  that  district  since  the  Civil  War. 

Certainly  it  was  a  strong  Republican  district,  for 
the  Republicans  not  only  controlled  their  own  ma- 
chine, but  in  some  of  the  counties  had  a  working 
agreement  with  a  part  of  the  Democratic  machine  as 
well.  In  fact,  the  Republicans  of  the  district  not 
only  selected  the  man  to  run  upon  the  Republican 
ticket  against  Mr.  Wilson,  but  also  attempted  to 
select  the  Democratic  candidate,  who  was  defeated 
for  the  nomination  by  Mr.  Wilson.  In  this  way, 
Wilson  not  only  had  to  fight  for  election,  but  also 
had  a  hard  struggle  to  secure  the  nomination. 

Notwithstanding  the  money  and  influence  used 
against  him,  W.  B.  Wilson  put  up  one  of  the  greatest 
fights  in  the  history  of  American  politics.  He  never 


124  W.  B.  WILSON 

made  a  promise  which  he  could  not  fulfill,  nor  a  state- 
ment which  he  could  not  prove.  He  never  spoke  an 
unkind  word  regarding  his  rival,  nor  said  a  mean 
thing  about  any  member  of  either  party.  He  ran 
on  a  straight  clear  promise  that  if  he  got  to  Congress 
he  would  work  for  certain  labor  legislation,  which, 
although  thought  radical  in  those  days,  is  now  taken 
as  a  matter  of  course.  Looking  back  upon  his  speeches 
made  during  that  campaign,  it  is  most  interesting  to 
see  how  the  opinions  of  a  nation  change.  He  was 
called  then  a  dangerous,  wild-eyed  radical  for  asking 
for  things  for  which  the  most  conservative  are  en- 
thusiastic today.  Still,  even  in  those  days  Wilson 
was  preferred  by  the  rich  interests  of  the  Fifteenth 
Congressional  District  to  any  other  labor  leader  of 
whom  they  knew.  This  was  very  forcibly  illustrated 
by  a  statement  made  during  the  campaign  by  Mr. 
W.  S.  Nearing,  a  prominent  employer  of  labor,  who 
said: 

"Wilson  is  a  constructive  man,  a  friend  of  capital 
as  well  as  of  labor,  and  one  whom  no  just  man  need 
fear." 

At  that  same  conference  another  big  business  man 
of  Tioga  County  said: 

"I  will  go  one  better  than  Nearing  by  voting  for 
Wilson,  although  I  am  a  Republican.  For  when  all 
is  said  and  done,  Wilson  has  done  more  to  keep  con- 
ditions peaceful  in  these  counties  than  any  other  man 
in  the  district.  It  is  impossible  to  estimate  the  mil- 
lions of  dollars  in  time  and  property  which  he  has 
saved  by  his  conciliatory  methods.  Had  it  not  been 
for  him,  this  district  would  have  been  so  honey-combed 
with  trouble  that  the  mines  would  have  been  shut 


RUNNING  FOR  CONGRESS  125 

down  permanently  and  disaster  would  have  come  to 
us  all." 

He,  however,  must  have  been  only  one  of  many 
Republicans  who  voted  for  Mr.  Wilson,  because  when 
the  polls  were  closed  and  the  votes  counted  on  No- 
vember 2,  1906,  W.  B.  Wilson  was  found  to  have  a 
majority  of  384. 

It  was  during  the  campaign  of  1906  that  Mr.  Wil- 
son was  introduced  to  the  people  of  Wellsboro  at  the 
Court  House,  which  was  filled  to  the  doors.  The  clos- 
ing paragraph  of  Mr.  Wilson's  address  is  well  re- 
membered in  that  county  seat  to  this  day.  After 
stating  the  things  that  he  believed  in  and  his  attitude 
upon  the  public  questions  affecting  the  farmer,  the 
laborer,  and  the  business  man,  and  what  he  would 
do  concerning  these  problems  if  they  sent  him  to  Con- 
gress, he  closed  his  remarks  with  this  statement: 

"If  the  people  of  the  Fifteenth  Congressional  Dis- 
trict on  election  day  see  fit  to  send  me  to  represent 
them  in  the  halls  of  Congress,  I  will  stand  for  those 
things  which  I  believe  will  be  beneficial  not  only  to 
the  people  of  this  district,  but  to  the  great  mass  of 
the  people  of  the  whole  country.  And  I  promise  you 
that  if  I  am  elected  I  will  return  here  two  years  hence 
and  render  to  you  an  account  of  my  stewardship." 

Two  years  later,  during  his  second  campaign, 
he  returned  to  Wellsboro  as  he  had  promised,  and 
again  we  find  the  Court  House  filled  to  the  doors. 
On  this  occasion  Hugh  L.  Kerwin,  who  was  a  resi- 
dent of  Wellsboro  and  the  son  of  the  shoemaker  men- 
tioned in  a  preceding  chapter,  was  the  chairman  of 
the  meeting.  After  stating  briefly  the  matters  at  issue 
in  the  campaign,  and  the  fact  that  Mr.  Wilson  was 


126  W.  B.  WILSON 

again  a  candidate  against  Mr.  Deemer,  his  former 
opponent,  Kerwin  said : 

"Two  years  ago  on  this  same  platform  in  this 
Court  House  William  B.  Wilson  told  you  that  if  the 
electorate  of  this  district  saw  fit  to  send  him  to  rep- 
resent them  in  the  halls  of  Congress,  he  would  return 
two  years  hence  and  render  an  account  of  his  steward- 
ship. Ladies  and  gentlemen,  your  Congressman,  Mr. 
Wilson,  is  here  tonight  to  keep  that  pledge." 

The  people  of  the  district  evidently  were  well 
pleased  with  the  manner  in  which  Mr.  Wilson  dis- 
charged the  duties  with  which  they  had  intrusted 
him,  for  they  returned  him  to  Congress  the  second 
time  by  a  majority  six  times  greater  than  that  which 
he  had  received  in  his  first  campaign. 

During  this  campaign  Mr.  Wilson  fought  on  his 
record.  He  advanced  no  new  theories,  but  simply 
told  the  people  what  he  had  done  and  what  he  had 
tried  to  do.  Wilson  was  always  a  great  believer  in 
taking  care  of  his  trade,  so  to  speak.  He  always  had 
time  to  see  any  constituent  and  perform  any  service. 
No  sacrifice  was  too  great  for  him  to  make  for  a  con- 
stituent. Furthermore,  as  soon  as  he  was  elected  he 
looked  upon  every  man,  woman,  and  child  in  the  dis- 
trict as  his  friend.  It  made  no  difference  to  him 
whether  requests  came  from  Republicans  or  Demo- 
crats, they  received  the  best  of  attention. 

The  third  campaign  opened  in  the  summer  of  1910. 
The  Republicans  were  then  through  with  Deemer,  and 
nominated  Clarence  L.  Peaslee,  a  lawyer,  of  Williams- 
port.  Again,  however,  Wilson  was  successful,  with 
a  majority  of  3,000.  This  was  considered  by  all  a 
great  and  most  wonderful  victory.  I  forget  which 


RUNNING  FOR  CONGRESS  127 

campaign  it  was,  but  it  is  said  of  one  of  them  that 
his  opponent  spent  $1.11  for  every  vote  received, 
while  Wilson's  votes  cost  less  than  a  cent  apiece. 

During  this  campaign  of  1910  Mr.  Wilson  was  a 
delegate  to  the  British  Trade  Conference,  and  was 
there  while  all  but  three  weeks  of  his  campaign  was 
going  on.  This  of  itself  was  a  most  remarkable  thing. 
In  the  previous  campaigns  it  was  said  that  he  was 
successful  through  his  campaigning  and  personality. 
But  the  campaign  of  1910  showed  that  he  was  success- 
ful because  so  many  people  loved  and  trusted  him. 
Although  far  away  in  England,  without  power  to 
campaign  or  take  .care  of  his  own  interests  at  home, 
he  still  won  in  a  Republican  district  over  a  Republi- 
can candidate  by  about  3,000  votes. 

Mr.  Wilson  had  one  advantage,  namely,  that  he 
had  the  following  both  of  the  wage  workers  and  the 
farmers.  He  was  a  member  both  of  the  Mine  Workers' 
Union  and  of  the  Grange.  It  was  his  interest  in 
farming  that  made  him  so  ready  to  work  for  good 
roads.  Not  only  did  he  believe  in  bringing  the  wage 
worker  and  employer  together,  but  also  in  bringing 
together  the  producer  and  the  consumer.  Mr.  Wilson 
always  wanted  to  bring  people  together,  in  order  to 
increase  production,  reduce  waste,  and  make  life 
easier.  He  believed  that  almost  everything  in  life  is 
a  question  of  understanding.  "So  long  as  there  is 
understanding,"  he  has  often  said  to  me,  "there  is 
peace;  but  when  understanding  is  lacking,  then  the 
germs  of  trouble  take  root  and  grow." 

Wilson's  last  campaign  was  in  1912.  Edgar  R. 
Kiess,  an  insurance  man,  was  the  Republican  nominee, 
and  was  also  on  the  Progressive  ticket — Mr.  Roosevelt 


128  W.  B.  WILSON 

carrying  the  district  by  a  large  majority.  Although 
Wilson  was  defeated,  this  was,  to  my  mind,  his  great- 
est campaign  and  in  fact  his  greatest  victory.  He 
received  a  total  of  more  votes  than  he  had  received 
in  the  election  of  1910  when  he  won,  but  Mr.  Kiess 
received  568  more  than  he  did,  the  respective  figures 
being:  Wilson  13,643;  Kiess  14,211;  the  socialist 
candidate  2,282;  and  the  prohibition  candidate  814. 
Wilson  has  always  been  opposed  to  socialism.  For 
some  years  there  had  been  a  strong  socialistic  move- 
ment developing  throughout  this  mining  region.  Wil- 
son had  continually  talked  to  these  people  and  tried 
to  show  them  that  it  is  impossible  for  men  to  pull 
themselves  up  by  their  boot  straps  and  that  only 
through  greater  production  can  we  ultimately  secure 
greater  'benefits. 

The  Socialists,  however,  refused  to  listen  to  Wil- 
son's kindly  advice.  During  his  entire  three  terms 
they  worked  diligently  to  build  up  a  party,  and  in 
1912  they  had  a  strong  organization.  Hence,  when 
Wilson  began  his  campaign  in  1912,  he  had  not  only 
the  Republicans  and  a  large  number  of  employers 
against  him,  but  also  this  socialistic  group.  Yet  he 
was  defeated  by  only  500  votes,  although  the  socialists 
polled  about  2,000.  As  he  went  about  campaigning, 
he  would  appeal  for  greater  consideration  for  labor 
and  the  wage  worker,  whose  welfare  he  believed  to  be 
the  oasis  of  prosperity,  but  he  would  always  remind 
the  wage  worker  that  if  nothing  were  produced  there 
would  be  nothing  to  divide.  In  looking  over  the 
newspapers  of  those  days  which  reported  the  cam- 
paign, I  find  such  statements  as  these: 

"The  Socialists  claim  that  labor  should  have  the 


RUNNING  FOE  CONGRESS  129 

full  social  value  of  its  product.  I  believe  this;  but 
let  me  ask  how  can  this  social  value  be  determined 
except  by  negotiating?  Let  us  take  a  pair  of  shoes 
for  an  illustration.  We  will  grant  that  labor  is  en- 
titled to  its  full  social  value  and  for  argument's  sake 
is  entitled  to  the  whole  pair  of  shoes.  But  granting 
such,  to  whom  shall  we  give  the  pair  of  shoes?  Cer- 
tainly not  to  the  men  and  women  in  the  shoe  factory. 
The  tanners  of  the  leather  must  be  considered;  the 
raisers  of  the  hide  should  not  be  forgotten;  the 
farmers  who  feed  the  cattle  are  worthy  of  their  hire. 
Then,  can  we  ignore  the  trainmen  who  transport  the 
cattle  and  the  hides  and  the  shoes  themselves?  It  is 
well  enough  to  say  that  labor  should  have  the  full 
social  value  of  its  product;  but  when  one  attempts 
to  apply  this,  he  finds  himself  up  against  great  prac- 
tical difficulties. 

"If  we  knew  that  each  man  contributed  the  same 
proportion  of  labor  to  the  pair  of  shoes;  if  we  could 
correctly  measure  and  balance  manual  labor  and  brain 
labor;  if  we  could  fairly  consider  the  part  which 
capital  plays,  and  certainly  it  plays  some  part,  then 
we  might  be  able  to  adopt  the  socialistic  program. 
A  little  thought,  however,  shows  us  clearly  that  all 
these  things  are  impossible  to  determine.  And  a 
thousand  years  from  today  they  will  still  be  undeter- 
mined. Hence  the  pathway  is  simple;  we  all  must 
seek  to  increase  production,  for  only  by  making  more 
shoes  shall  we  all  get  more  shoes;  then  we  shall  sit 
peacefully  around  a  table  and  negotiate  as  to  how  the 
product  of  those  shoes  shall  be  divided." 

In  talking  with  men  who  were  in  Congress  with 
Mr.  "Wilson,  it  has  been  a  pleasure  to  note  hew  they 


180  W.  B.  WILSON 

all  respected  him.  Republicans  and  Democrats  alike 
all  have  a  good  word  to  say  for  his  honesty,  industry, 
good  judgment,  and  fairness.  Even  ultra-conserva- 
tives like  "Uncle  Joe"  Cannon,  who  fought  him  con- 
tinually on  all  measures,  had  the  greatest  respect  for 
him  personally. 

During  Mr.  Wilson's  first  and  second  terms  Mr. 
Cannon  was  speaker  of  the  House.  Naturally,  under 
a  conservative  Republican  like  Mr.  Cannon,  Mr.  Wil- 
son did  not  receive  very  good  committee  appoint- 
ments. The  two  committees  on  which  he  served  were 
the  Patents  Committee  and  the  Census  Committee. 
Still,  those  committees  had  considerable  important 
work  at  that  time.  The  Patents  Committee  revamped 
the  Copyright  Law,  and  the  Census  Committee  had 
charge  of  the  great  1910  Census. 

During  Mr.  Wilson's  third  term  Hon.  Champ  Clark 
was  Speaker  of  the  House,  the  Democrats  having  come 
into  control.  Mr.  Wilson  was  immediately  made 
Chairman  of  the  Labor  Committee,  and  was  also  put 
on  the  Committee  on  Mines  and  Mining  and  the  Com- 
mittee on  Merchant  Marine  and  Fisheries.  On  all 
of  these  he  performed  most  conscientious  service, 
rarely  missing  a  meeting. 

It  was  especially  fortunate  for  Mr.  Wilson  that  the 
Democrats  came  into  power  when  they  did,  for  he 
waged  the  campaign  of  1910  on  Cannonism.  He 
showed  the  people,  not  only  of  his  district,  but  of  the 
country,  the  danger  of  Cannon's  arbitrary  control  of 
Congress  in  the  interests  of  a  small  group.  Mr.  Wil- 
son would  say  in  his  speeches: 

"Although  this  country  is  a  republic,  it  is  so  only 
in  name,  unless  the  people  rise  and  take  control. 


RUNNING  FOR  CONGRESS  131 

There  can  be  less  democracy  in  a  republic  in  which 
the  people  leave  the  control  to  a  small  group  than  in 
a  monarchy  in  which  the  people  are  alive  to  the  issues 
of  the  day.  There  is  nothing  in  names  or  systems. 
Our  future  depends  on  each  of  us  keeping  ourselves 
interested  in  government  and  the  people  who  repre- 
sent us.  Unless  this  flame  of  patriotism  continues  to 
burn  in  the  hearts  of  all  of  our  people,  the  nation 
may  become  a  republic  only  in  name." 

William  B.  Wilson  thought  he  was  through  with 
politics  in  1912,  but  a  strong  movement  developed  in 
1914  and  again  in  1918  to  make  him  Governor  of 
Pennsylvania.  It  was  only  the  active  interference 
of  President  Wilson  that  prevented  W.  B.  Wilson 
from  being  nominated  in  the  former  year.  When 
the  delegation  came  to  Washington  urging  the  Presi- 
dent to  release  him  from  the  office  of  Secretary  of 
Labor,  President  Wilson  replied: 

"Gentlemen,  you  can  much  more  easily  find  a  suit- 
able candidate  for  the  Governorship  of  Pennsylvania 
than  I  can  find  a  suitable  candidate  for  the  office  of 
Secretary  of  Labor." 

It  is  generally  known  that  Secretary  Wilson  was 
not  a  very  good  campaigner  for  himself,  as  he  never 
asked  men  to  vote  for  him.  Owing  to  his  extremely 
diffident  and  modest  nature,  it  was  impossible  for 
him  to  do  this.  From  my  experience  in  Washing- 
ton, however,  I  think  he  was  perhaps  a  most  successful 
campaigner.  Certainly  this  was  indicated  by  his 
three  successive  victories  in  a  Republican  stronghold. 
But  people  in  his  own  district  insist  on  telling  stories 
of  how  in  his  own  campaigns  he  often  devoted  virtu- 
ally all  of  his  efforts  to  helping  others. 


132  W.  B.  WILSON 

This  was  most  interestingly  illustrated  at  a  meeting 
at  the  Proctor-Ellison  Company 's  tannery  at  Elkland, 
Pennsylvania,  during  the  campaign  of  1912.  Several 
of  the  foremen  and  officials,  being  very  fond  of  Mr. 
Wilson,  urged  him  to  come  out  and  meet  the  men 
at  the  close  of  the  working  day.  With  Mr.  Wilson 
was  Hon.  Robert  W.  Hilton,  who  was  running  for 
State  Senator  from  the  Twenty-fifth  Senatorial  Dis- 
trict. Mr.  Wilson  and  Mr.  Hilton  shook  hands  with 
all  the  men  as  they  filed  by  and  were  presented  by  the 
foreman.  As  each  one  was  introduced  to  Mr.  Wil- 
son, he  would  immediately  turn  and  introduce  him 
to  Mr.  Hilton,  telling  him  of  Mr.  Hilton's  good 
qualities  and  urging  him  to  vote  for  Mr.  Hilton  as 
State  Senator.  As  Mr.  Hilton  was  elected  and  Mr. 
Wilson  defeated,  many  would  say  that  this  was  very 
poor  campaigning  on  Mr.  Wilson's  part;  but  others 
believe  that  his  success  in  the  preceding  campaigns 
was  due  to  this  spirit  of  unselfishness. 

Certainly  it  was  this  in  Mr.  Wilson's  makeup  that 
caused  James  Kerr,  a  big  coal  operator  in  central 
Pennsylvania,  during  Mr.  Wilson's  first  campaign,  to 
get  out  of  his  sick  bed  to  pay  tribute  at  a  public 
meeting  to  W.  B.  Wilson's  great  fairness.  At  that 
time  Mr.  Kerr  said : 

"I  have  such  confidence  in  Mr.  Wilson  that  I  am 
willing  to  open  my  books  to  him  and  leave  absolutely 
to  his  judgment  what  wages  should  be  paid  to  my 
men." 

Although  many  of  the  so-called  shrewd  politicians 
blame  his  defeat  to  this  spirit  of  fairness,  yet  these 
very  qualities  caused  President  Wilson  to  select  him 
as  the  first  Secretary  of  Labor.  The  President  made 


RUNNING  FOE  CONGRESS  133 

no  mistake,  for  when  Mr.  Wilson  was  chosen  to  the 
post  the  new  secretary  made  this  statement : 

"Many  wage  earners  have  a  natural  prejudice 
against  the  employer  class ;  and  many  employers  have 
such  a  prejudice  against  wage  workers,  especially 
when  organized.  But  the  Department  of  Labor 
should  have  no  prejudice  against  either  class;  fur- 
thermore, we  should  do  all  we  can  to  remove  this 
prejudice  from  both  sides. 

"Although  the  specific  work  of  the  Department  of 
Labor  is  to  improve  the  condition  of  the  wage  worker, 
as  it  is  the  duty  of  the  Department  of  Agriculture 
to  help  the  interests  of  the  agriculturist,  and  of  the 
Department  of  Commerce  to  help  the  commercial  in- 
terests, yet  we  must  never  get  labor  anything  that 
is  out  of  line  with  justice.  The  prosperity  of  labor  is 
fundamentally  based  upon  the  prosperity  of  the  na- 
tion as  a  whole.  In  order  that  any  group  may  per- 
manently progress,  all  groups  must  have  justice.  Our 
work  is  to  help  the  wage  workers;  but  we  must  help 
them  along  sound  lines  and  in  a  way  that  will  not 
bring  about  a  detrimental  reaction," 


CHAPTER  XIV 
Six  YEARS  IN  CONGRESS 

W.  B.  WILSON  took  his  seat  in  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives December  7,  1908,  at  the  opening  of  the 
Sixtieth  Congress,  the  first  Democratic  Representative 
from  the  Fifteenth  District  in  Pennsylvania  since  the 
Civil  War.  He  had  promised  his  friends  the  labor- 
ing men  that  he  would  do  all  he  could  for  them,  and 
from  the  first  he  had  it  in  his  mind  to  promote  the 
foundation  of  a  Department  of  Labor,  which  would 
protect  the  interests  of  Labor  as  the  Department  of 
Agriculture  looks  after  the  interests  of  the  farmer, 
and  other  departments  help  other  occupations. 

In  looking  over  the  records  of  Congressional  doings, 
it  is  interesting  to  note  how  many  times  W.  B.  Wilson 
introduced  "A  bill  to  increase  the  pension  of"  some 
one.  It  seems  he  found  that  many  people  who  de- 
served pensions  or  an  increase  had  been  altogether 
neglected  by  his  predecessor,  so  he  made  it  his  busi- 
ness to  see  that  they  received  justice,  and  were  treated 
as  others  had  been  in  receiving  relief  or  additional 
pensions.  He  was  approachable,  and  no  one  asked 
him  a  favor  which  he  did  not  grant,  if,  after  consid- 
eration, he  found  that  it  was  a  just  demand. 

As  a  miner,  he  had  of  course  known  of  the  great 
many  dangers  that  beset  the  life  of  one  who  goes  down 
to  get  out  the  fuel  of  the  world.  Naturally,  then,  when 
he  came  to  a  position  where  it  was  possible  to  have 
action  taken  for  the  protection  of  these  underground 

134 


SIX  YEARS  IN  CONGRESS  135 

workers,  he  thought  of  them.  In  this  first  term  in 
Congress  he  introduced  a  bill  to  appoint  a  com- 
mittee to  investigate  mining  disasters.  In  the  discus- 
sion of  this  bill  he  brought  out  the  fact  that  in  no 
country  in  the  world  is  mining  carried  on  under  as 
favorable  conditions  as  in  the  United  States.  There 
is  no  country  where  the  per  diem  production  is 
greater,  no  country  where  the  workmen  are  of  as 
high  a  grade  of  intelligence,  and  yet  no  country 
where  mortality  in  the  mines  is  as  great  as  with  us. 

Out  of  the  appointment  of  this  committee  to  in- 
vestigate the  causes  of  mining  disasters  grew  the 
founding  of  the  Bureau  of  Mines  and  Mining.  It 
was  argued  by  some  that,  since  such  a  committee  had 
been  appointed,  there  was  no  need  to  go  farther  and 
add  to  the  departments  and  bureaus  of  the  Govern- 
ment. The  Geological  Survey  could  attend  to  the 
development  and  discovery  of  new  minerals  as  it  had 
been  doing.  The  committee  reporting  on  this  bill 
for  a  Bureau  of  Mines  wanted  a  Department  of  Mines, 
and  were  obliged  to  be  satisfied  with  the  Bureau,  as 
a  part  of  the  Department  of  the  Interior. 

In  the  discussion  Mr.  Wilson  took  a  prominent  part. 
He  said  that  in  the  seventeen  years  from  1890  to  1906, 
the  number  of  men  killed  in  the  coal  mines  of  the 
United  States  was  22,840;  701  were  killed  in  1890 
and  2,061  in  1906.  In  Belgium  in  1906  less  than  a 
third  as  many  lives  were  lost;  yet  Belgium  has  the 
deepest  mines  in  existence,  with  the  most  dangerous 
gases,  known  everywhere  as  the  most  hazardous  for 
workmen.  In  other  countries,  where  greater  dangers 
exist,  there  was  far  less  loss  of  life  than  in  the  United 
States.  Belgium,  France,  Germany,  and  Great  Brit- 


136  W.  B.  WILSON 

ain  have  bureaus  which  investigate  into  the  conditions 
existing  in  the  mines,  experiment  as  to  the  causes 
which  create  the  conditions,  and  endeavor  to  protect 
the  lives  of  the  miners. 

In  each  of  the  United  States  where  mining  is  car- 
ried on  there  are  laws  requiring  a  system  of  mine 
inspection,  adequate  systems  of  ventilation,  and  a  cer- 
tain minimum  of  air  supplied  for  each  man  engaged 
in  a  particular  mine;  but  in  spite  of  this  terrible 
accidents  occur,  and  often  it  is  impossible  to  trace 
the  causes.  In  Pennsylvania  and  some  other  States 
the  law  requires  that  men  in  charge  of  mines  should 
pass  examinations  showing  that  they  are  qualified  to 
oversee  such  work;  but  often,  in  investigating  the 
cause  of  an  accident,  the  courts  hold  that  the  em- 
ployer, having  employed  a  man  certified  by  the  State 
to  be  competent,  is  relieved  from  responsibility  for 
any  result  of  accident. 

A  Congressman  asked  Mr.  Wilson,  in  the  course  of 
debate,  if  he  did  not  think  the  dangers  to  miners 
might  be  lessened  if  employers  were  held  strictly 
responsible  for  all  risks  incident  to  the  service  in 
mines.  Mr.  Wilson  agreed  that  it  would  do  much 
toward  reducing  the  mortality  in  mines,  but,  with  his 
customary  tolerance  and  sense  of  justice,  he  added: 
"I  take  it  that  no  gentleman  will  assert  that  the  coal 
operators  or  other  employers  deliberately  create  con- 
ditions in  the  mines  by  which  the  lives  and  health  of 
their  employees  are  endangered.  If  they  do,  it  is 
through  lack  of  knowledge  as  to  what  creates  the 
dangerous  conditions. ' ' 

The  bill  states  the  object  of  the  Bureau  of  Mines 
to  be  "to  foster,  promote,  and  develop  the  mining 


SIX  YEAKS  IN  CONGRESS  137 

industries  of  the  United  States,  to  make  diligent  in- 
vestigation of  the  methods  of  mining,  the  safety  of 
miners,  the  possible  improvement  of  conditions  under 
.which  mining  operations  are  carried  on,  the  treatment 
of  ores,  the  use  of  explosives  and  electricity,  the  pre- 
vention of  accidents,  the  value  of  mineral  products 
and  markets  for  the  same,  and  of  other  matters  perti- 
nent to  said  industries." 

This  was  to  benefit  all  kinds  of  mining,  and  one 
of  the  arguments  in  its  favor  was  that  it  would  have 
to  do  with  the  developing  and  producing  of  the  rarer 
minerals,  such  as  radium,  platinum,  vanardium,  etc. 
It  would  also  study  plans  to  utilize  the  great  quanti- 
ties of  inferior  ore,  discarded  and  wasted  in  the 
dumps  of  mines.  So  far  from  benefiting  only  great 
corporations,  as  some  of  its  opposers  claimed,  such  a 
Bureau  would  be  of  great  help  to  the  many  small 
mining  companies  and  miners  in  many  sections.  The 
Federal  Government  could  make  more  complete  in- 
vestigation than  the  several  States,  having  greater 
facilities  for  the  work. 

Many  mining  unions  and  congresses  approved  the 
founding  of  the  new  Bureau,  and  in  many  States 
messages  were  sent  to  Congress  urging  the  passage 
of  the  bill.  The  mining  industry  is  second  only  to 
agriculture  in  producing  the  wealth  of  the  nation, 
and  should  have  a  body  whose  duty  it  should  be  to 
attend  to  its  interests.  The  Department  of  Agricul- 
ture protects  the  grain,  cotton,  cattle,  fruit,  and  other 
producers;  the  Department  of  Commerce  and  Labor 
had  a  Bureau  of  Manufactures,  so  that  the  founding 
of  a  Bureau  of  Mines  would  not  be  establishing  a 


138  W.  B.  WILSON 

precedent  for  the  protection  of  any  one  line  of 
industry. 

Mr.  Wilson  stated  that  miners  are  an  intelligent  and 
courageous  class  of  men,  showing  great  bravery  in  go- 
ing to  the  rescue  of  their  fellow  men  in  time  of  ac- 
cident. He  said : 

"Tell  me  in  martial  measures  of  the  charge  of  the 
Light  Brigade;  point  with  patriotic  pride  to  the 
farmers  who  fought  with  the  soldiers  at  Concord  and 
Bunker  Hill ;  repeat  to  me  the  great  story  of  the  con- 
flict between  the  Blue  and  the  Gray,  when  the  '  flower 
of  American  youth  yielded  up  their  last  full  measure 
of  devotion'  in  defense  of  their  respective  flags, 
and  my  blood  will  thrill  with  patriotic  enthusiasm  and 
tingle  through  my  veins  in  sympathetic  response. 
Yet  with  all  my  admiration  for  the  heroes  of  the  battle 
field  and  their  wonderful  achievements  in  support  of 
the  rights  of  men,  it  does  not  equal  my  love,  it  cannot 
measure  my  devotion  to  those  sturdy  sons  of  toil  who, 
uninfluenced  by  the  enthusiasm  of  numbers,  without 
hope  of  present  reward  or  future  glory,  deliberately 
enter  the  dark  and  dangerous  covers  of  the  mines  to 
carry  relief  to  their  suffering  fellow  men  or  perish  in 
the  attempt.  It  is  for  the  benefit  of  men  of  this  char- 
acter that  I  appeal  to  you  to  establish  and  equip  a 
Bureau  of  Mines  and  Mining. ' ' 

When  the  bill  finally  came  to  a  vote  it  passed  with 
a  large  majority.  Later  in  Mr.  Wilson's  Congres- 
sional life,  when  bills  came  up  regarding  appropria- 
tions for  this  Bureau  and  adding  to  its  power,  he  spoke 
strongly  in  favor  of  providing  ample  funds  for  the 
work  and  increasing  its  usefulness.  He  said : 

"The  prime  purpose  of  this  Bureau  is  to  promote 


SIX  YEARS  IN  CONGRESS  139 

the  health  and  safety  of  those  engaged  in  mining;  but 
there  is  no  reason  why,  in  addition  to  that  purpose, 
we  should  not  now  also  empower  the  Bureau  with  the 
related  subject  of  taking  care  of  the  waste  that  oc- 
curs in  mining. 

"You  may  take  a  crop  from  a  piece  of  land  and 
next  year  grow  another  crop  on  it ;  you  may  even  take 
a  crop  of  timber  from  land  and  in  the  course  of  a  few 
years  take  another  crop  of  timber  from  the  same 
land.  But  when  you  have  once  taken  a  crop  of  coal 
out  of  the  land  there  is  no  method  known  to  man  by 
which  you  can  produce  another  crop.  There  is  an 
enormous  amount  of  waste  in  mines.  What  is  lost  is 
not  only  lost  to  the  mine  owner,  but  also  to  the  entire 
community.  There  are  places  where  the  percentage 
of  ore  is  comparatively  low,  so  that  it  would  not  pay 
for  working.  The  Bureau  might  find  a  way  to  mine 
it  more  economically,  thus  making  a  larger  amount  of 
coal  available  for  use." 

In  February,  1912,  Mr.  Wilson  introduced  into  the 
House  a  bill  "to  regulate  the  officering  and  manning 
of  vessels,  to  abolish  the  involuntary  servitude  im- 
posed upon  the  seamen  of  the  merchant  marine  of 
foreign  countries  while  in  ports  of  the  United  States, 
to  prevent  unskilled  manning  of  American  vessels,  to 
encourage  the  training  of  boys  in  the  American  mer- 
chant marine,  for  the  further  protection  of  life  at 
sea  and  to  amend  laws  relative  to  seamen  and  other 
purposes. ' ' 

The  loss  of  the  Titanic  had  called  sharply  to  the  at- 
tention of  the  public  the  necessity  for  the  use  of  life 
boats  and  familiarity  of  seamen  with  their  use.  This 
bill  provided  that  a  sufficient  number  of  able  seamen 


140  W.  B.  WILSON 

who  knew  how  to  manage  life  boats  should  be  on  every 
ship.  Besides  this,  the  bill  aimed  to  give  protection 
and  fair  dealing  to  seamen  and  sailors  in  the  matter 
of  contracts.  Mr.  Wilson  held  that,  when  any  per- 
son made  a  contract  to  perform  labor,  and  after  hav- 
ing made  the  contract  desired  to  cease  from  the  labor, 
if  he  were  compelled  to  continue  it,  that  would  con- 
stitute involuntary  servitude.  "If  you  can  by  law 
compel  a  man  to  work  for  one  second  after  he  desires 
to  cease  working,  then  you  can  compel  him  to  make 
a  contract  to  work  for  his  entire  lifetime,  by  virtue  of 
his  necessities.  And  that  would  give  not  a  brief  period 
but  a  lifetime  of  involuntary  servitude,"  said  Mr. 
Wilson,  adding  in  a  final  appeal : 

' '  Give  us  this  bill  and  the  '  free  ship  bill, '  and  you 
will  have  taken  a  great  stride  toward  an  American 
Merchant  Marine.  The  seaman  will  be  free,  his  con- 
dition will  improve,  and  the  American  man  and  boy 
will  seek  a  seafaring  life  in  sufficient  numbers  to  man 
all  our  vessels  in  peace  or  war.  The  commercial  ad- 
vantages which  the  foreign  ship  owner  has  had  will  be 
removed,  American  capital  will  find  profitable  invest- 
ment at  sea,  and  the  American  seaman,  with  his  self- 
respect  restored,  will  stand  out  as  a  model  of  seaman- 
ship to  all  the  world. ' ' 

The  appeal  appealed.  The  bill,  known  as  the  Wil- 
son Seamen's  Bill,  passed  the  House. 

It  is  not  strange  that  the  little  boy  who  toiled  in  the 
mines  of  Arnot,  wasting  his  childhood  in  the  damp 
dark  caverns  of  the  earth,  should,  when  grown  to  man- 
hood and  honored  with  power  and  responsibility,  turn 
his  attention  to  the  great  and  growing  evil  of  child 
labor.  Mr.  Wilson  naturally  gave  much  thought  and 


SIX  YEARS  IN  CONGRESS  141 

attention  to  the  Children's  Bureau  bill  before  Con- 
gress and  strongly  supported  it  in  debate.  The  pur- 
pose of  the  bill  was  "to  investigate  and  report  upon 
all  matters  pertaining  to  the  welfare  of  children  and 
child  life  among  all  classes  of  people,  and  especially  to 
investigate  the  question  of  infant  mortality,  birth 
rate,  orphanage,  juvenile  courts,  desertion,  dangerous 
occupations,  accidents  and  diseases  of  children,  em- 
ployment and  legislation  affecting  children  in  the  sev- 
eral States  and  Territories."  Mr.  Wilson  summed  it 
up  as  a  bill  "to  promote  the  welfare  of  children  and 
to  devise  means  whereby  the  necessities  of  the  parents 
cannot  be  used  to  retard  the  development  of  the  chil- 
dren, who  are  the  citizens  of  tomorrow."  The  bill 
passed.  The  Children's  Bureau  came  into  existence 
and  was  placed  under  the  charge  of  the  Department 
of  Commerce  and  Labor. 

For  many  years  past  there  had  been  a  great  demand 
for  the  creation  of  a  Department  of  Labor  through 
which  the  great  labor  interests  of  the  country  might 
be  represented  in  the  President's  Cabinet.  In  fact, 
the  Democratic  Party  had  in  1908  and  1912  pledged 
itself  to  the  enactment  of  a  law  establishing  such  a 
Department.  Mr.  Wilson  felt  very  strongly  the  need 
of  such  a  Department,  for  the  Bureau  of  Labor,  con- 
nected with  the  Department  of  Commerce  and  Labor, 
had  limited  powers  and  appropriations.  In  his  cam- 
paigns he  had  promised  labor  to  do  all  he  could  to 
further  their  interests,  and  to  him,  the  best  way  to  ac- 
complish this  would  be  to  put  through  legislation 
establishing  a  Department  of  Labor.  In  his  appeal 
for  the  bill  he  said : 

"There  are  in  the  neighborhood  of  30,000,000  work- 


142  W.  B.  WILSON 

men  employed  in  the  United  States,  and  notwithstand- 
ing that  fact  and  the  fact  that  the  great  bulk  of  our 
people  are  wage  workers  or  farmers,  there  has  been 
no  representative  of  labor  in  the  Cabinet  up  to  now. 
.  .  .  One  feature  of  the  bill  is  the  section  which 
gives  to  the  Secretary  of  Labor  the  power  to  act  as 
mediator  or  to  appoint  commissions  of  conciliation 
in  trade  disputes.  Those  who  have  had  experience  in 
trade  disputes  know  that  in  their  early  stages,  when 
the  tension  is  not  great,  when  both  sides  are  in  a  re- 
ceptive frame  of  mind,  some  one  who  has  the  con- 
fidence of  both  parties,  acting  as  mediator,  would  be 
in  a  position  to  bring  the  contending  parties  together, 
and  thereby  avoid  industrial  disputes  to  a  great  ex- 
tent— not  entirely  avoid  them,  but  reduce  them  to  a 
minimum. 

"When  a  trade  dispute  is  inaugurated  is  the  time 
for  a  mediator  to  act.  When  it  goes  on  until  the 
workmen  have  reached  the  point  where  they  consider 
the  employer  a  bloodthirsty  oppressor  of  labor,  and 
the  employer  has  reached  the  point  where  he  con- 
siders the  workmen  anarchists  and  lawbreakers,  there 
is  little  chance  for  conciliation.  Both  sides  must  go  on 
until  one  or  the  other  is  exhausted. ' ' 

Mr.  Wilson  did  not  believe  in  compulsory  arbitra- 
tion. This  was  not  included  in  his  bill,  for  he  be- 
lieved that  then  workmen  might  be  obliged  to  work 
under  conditions  they  thought  unfair,  and  a  condition 
of  that  kind  is  slavery.  Or,  the  employer  might  be 
obliged  to  employ  men  and  continue  operations  at  a 
loss  until  his  entire  property  had  been  swept  away. 
Both  conditions  are  wrong. 

The   Department   of   Commerce   and   Labor   was 


SIX  YEARS  IN  CONGRESS  143 

created  in  1903,  and  labor  was  disappointed  not  to 
have  a  representative  in  the  Cabinet  at  that  time.  It 
was  then  thought,  however,  and  brought  out  in  debate, 
that  the  work  might  grow  so  that  later  it  would  be 
found  necessary  to  have  a  separate  Department  of 
Labor. 

The  function  of  the  new  department  as  set  forth  in 
the  bill  is  "to  foster,  promote,  and  develop  the  welfare 
of  the  wage  earners  of  the  United  States,  to  improve 
the  working  conditions,  and  to  advance  their  oppor- 
tunities for  profitable  employment. ' '  Even  though  not 
asked  to  mediate  in  labor  disputes,  it  is  the  duty  of 
the  Secretary  of  Labor  to  go  to  the  contending  par- 
ties and  endeavor  to  bring  them  together.  Having 
used  all  his  advice  and  influence  in  that  direction,  his 
power  ends.  He  has  no  authority  to  compel  either  side 
to  accept  any  decision  or  to  enter  into  arbitration  for 
a  settlement  of  the  dispute. 

The  second  session  of  the  Sixty-second  Congress 
was  a  long  one,  extending  from  December  4,  1911,  to 
August  25,  1912.  A  few  days  before  that  Congress 
adjourned  Mr.  Wilson  made  a  long  speech  in  which 
he  enumerated  the  bills  that  had  been  passed  by  Con- 
gress in  the  session  about  to  close,  and  made  an  appeal 
for  working  men  to  vote  for  the  Democratic  candidate 
for  President  in  the  election  to  follow  in  the  fall.  He 
alluded  to  the  excise  bill,  taxing  incomes  so  that  the 
wealth  of  the  country  bears  a  greater  share  in  the 
burdens  of  the  Government  than  heretofore ;  the  pub- 
licity bill,  which  enables  every  one  to  know  before 
election  takes  place  who  are  the  contributors  to  the 
campaign  expenses  of  their  representatives ;  the  parcel 
post  clause  in  the  Post  Office  apropriation  bill,  pro- 


144  W.  B.  WILSON 

viding  for  the  selection  of  committees  to  investigate 
and  report  on  definite  plans  of  parcel  post  and  postal 
express. 

Among  the  bills  recognized  as  labor  measures  passed 
by  the  House  in  that  Congress  were  the  various  eight- 
hour  bills  applying  to  work  done  for  the  Government 
as  well  as  work  done  by  the  Government,  to  dredge 
workers,  to  civilians  engaged  in  the  manufacture  of 
ordnance  and  powder  for  the  Government,  to  certain 
navy  workers,  to  postal  clerks  and  carriers.  There 
was  also  the  anti-injunction  bill,  to  protect  working 
men  during  the  period  of  trade  disputes  and  to  give 
them  the  same  protection  in  the  courts  that  other  men 
enjoy.  For  more  than  thirty  years  there  had  been  a 
tendency  on  the  part  of  equity  courts  to  declare  by 
injunction  certain  acts  to  be  criminal  during  labor 
disputes  that  are  not  criminal  at  other  times,  and  then 
to  try  men  for  committing  these  crimes  without  the 
protection  of  trial  by  jury.  The  passage  of  this  bill 
' '  put  the  stamp  of  disapproval  on  such  usurpation  on 
the  part  of  courts." 

The  Industrial  Commission  bill  was  to  investigate 
the  entire  subject  of  industrial  relations  between  em- 
ployer and  employee,  with  a  view  to  ascertaining  the 
best  method  of  dealing  with  industrial  disputes,  so  as 
to  protect  the  rights  of  all  persons  directly  or  in- 
directly interested.  Out  of  the  condition  of  unrest 
prevalent  in  the  country  at  that  time  and  for  sev- 
eral years  previous  had  grown  many  strikes  and 
threatened  strikes. 

"Strikes  between  labor  and  capital,"  said  Mr.  Wil- 
son in  defense  of  this  bill,  "are  like  wars  between  na- 
tions. They  bring  suffering,  hardships,  and  priva- 


SIX  YEARS  IN  CONGRESS  145 

tions  of  every  kind  and  character  to  those  who  are  en- 
gaged in  the  disputes  and  to  the  community  at  large. 
Men  do  not  engage  in  strikes  purely  for  the  amuse- 
ment it  brings  them.  Men  do  not  engage  in  strikes 
for  what  they  consider  frivolous  reasons.  They  know 
what  is  ahead  of  them,  and  are  not  prone  to  engage  in 
industrial  contests  unless  they  believe  they  have  very 
real  and  important  grievances  to  correct  which  can- 
not be  corrected  by  other  methods.  The  purpose  of 
this  measure  is  to  provide  a  commission  composed  of 
equal  numbers  of  wage  workers  and  employers,  with 
a  balance  of  disinterested  parties,  to  conduct  an  in- 
vestigation into  the  conditions  which  have  created  the 
spirit  of  unrest  and  report  their  findings  to  Congress 
from  time  to  time,  so  that  Congress  may  legislate  on 
the  subject  if  necessary.  The  province  of  this  com- 
mittee will  be  merely  to  investigate  and  report.  It 
will  not  interfere  with  the  work  of  the  proposed  De- 
partment of  Labor." 

There  were  also  bills  passed  to  protect  the  prod- 
ucts of  free  labor  from  the  competition  of  convict 
labor  products,  to  make  shorter  the  hours  of  masters 
and  mates  of  vessels,  and  other  minor  bills  for  the 
benefit  of  labor. 

President  Taft  signed  the  bill  creating  the  Depart- 
ment of  Labor  during  the  very  last  part  of  his  admin- 
istration. In  the  session  of  Congress  March  3,  1913, 
there  was  an  interesting  prophetic  scene  in  the  House. 
Mr.  Mann  of  Illinois,  speaking  on  the  Wilson  Sea- 
men's bill,  said : 

"Mr.  Speaker,  one  gentleman  who  has  been  most 
prominent  in  connection  with  this  bill,  both  in  the 
committee  and  on  the  floor,  is  a  member  of  this  House, 


146  W.  B.  WILSON 

who  has  been  also  prominent  in  other  legislation 
which  has  been  enacted  by  Congress  for  years,  and  I 
hope  that  we  are  saluting  the  next  Secretary  of 
Labor." 

Another  member  promptly  said:  "I  yield  five 
minutes  to  the  next  Secretary  of  Labor." 

Whereupon  the  Speaker  announced:  "The  Secre- 
tary of  Labor  is  recognized  for  five  minutes." 

W.  B.  Wilson  was  appointed  the  Secretary  of  Labor, 
and  by  many  it  is  said  his  was  the  "big  job"  of  the 
Cabinet.  The  new  department  took  over  from  the  old 
Department  of  Commerce  and  Labor  the  Bureau  of 
Labor  Statistics,  the  Bureau  of  Immigration  and 
Naturalization,  and  the  Children's  Bureau.  "It  has 
power  to  act  as  mediator  and  arbiter  in  labor  disputes 
whenever  it  is  deemed  necessary  for  the  establish- 
ment of  industrial  peace.  It  can  put  an  end  to  the 
slavery  existing  in  many  of  the  industries  today,  in 
mines  and  in  lumber  camps,  and  in  the  steel  plants, 
where  every  alternate  Sunday  men  work  twenty-four 
hours  from  sun-up  to  sun-up.  It  can  see  that  the  law 
restricting  child  labor  is  rigidly  enforced.  Today 
over  1,700,000  children  under  fifteen  work  ten  and 
twelve  hours  a  day  and  sometimes  all  night  in  fields 
and  factories  and  mines  and  workshops.  It  can  de- 
cide whether  government  by  injunction  can  be  en- 
forced always  in  the  interest  of  capital  and  never  in 
the  interest  of  labor. ' '  Verily  this  is  a  "  big  job. ' ' 


CHAPTER  XV 

CREATING  THE  DEPARTMENT  OF  LABOR 

SUGGESTIONS  and  proposals  for  the  Department  of 
Labor  appear  to  have  been  urged  continuously  since 
the  Civil  War.  They  were  so  numerous  and  persistent 
over  the  long  period  intervening  between  the  earliest 
of  them  and  its  creation  as  to  indicate  a  steadily 
strengthening  popular  demand  for  some  such  act  of 
Congress  as  that  under  which  this  Department 
operates. 

In  1865  a  department  of  the  Federal  Government 
with  reference  to  the  welfare  of  wage  earners,  and 
with  a  Secretary  in  the  President's  Cabinet  to  speak 
for  them,  was  advocated  by  prominent  labor  leaders. 
Their  suggestions  appear  to  have  been  officially 
adopted  in  1865  by  labor  organizations  of  that  period. 

Probably  the  only  earlier  proposal  in  any  wise  of 
similar  character  was  that  of  a  bill  introduced  in 
Congress  in  1864  by  the  Hon.  Gottlieb  Orth,  then  a 
Representative  from  Indiana,  for  the  creation  of  a 
"Department  of  Industry."  Numerous  formal 
measures  bearing  on  the  subject  were  proposed  in 
Congress  from  that  time  forward  during  the  following 
forty  years  or  more.* 

*  More  than  a  hundred  bills  and  resolutions  anticipating 
the  present  Department  of  Labor  and  introduced  between  1864 
and  1902  are  summarized  in  pages  13-21  of  the  public  docu- 
ment entitled  "  Organization  and  the  Laws  of  the  Department 
of  Commerce  and  Labor,"  published  by  the  Government  Print- 
ing Office  in  1904  and  now  out  of  print. 

147 


148  W.  B.  WILSON 

In  1867  Congressional  action  was  secured,  but  only 
on  a  resolution  instructing  the  Committee  on  Rules 
to  inquire  into  the  expediency  of  the  creation  of  a 
standing  labor  committee. 

Some  of  the  measures  introduced  in  Congress,  both 
before  and  afterward,  were  more  intimately  related 
to  the  commercial  and  business  side  of  industrial  af- 
fairs than  to  the  wage-earning  side.  Others,  how- 
ever, distinctly  anticipated  the  present  Department  of 
Labor  and  its  principal  functions. 

Among  the  latter  was  a  bill,  passed  by  the  House 
of  Representatives  in  1871,  for  the  appointment  of  a 
commission  on  the  subject  of  wages  and  hours  of  labor 
and  the  division  of  profits  between  labor  and  capital 
in  the  United  States.  There  were  also  bills  for  estab- 
lishing a  "Bureau  of  Labor,"  a  "Labor  Bureau  in 
connection  with  the  Department  of  Agriculture,"  a 
"Bureau  of  Labor,  with  a  Commissioner  of  Labor," 
a  "Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics,"  a  "Bureau  of  Labor 
Statistics  in  the  Interior  Department,"  and  a  "De- 
partment of  Industry."  None  of  the  bills  was  en- 
acted. But  several  others  of  similar  tenor  and  pur- 
pose, introduced  at  the  first  session  of  the  Forty-eighth 
Congress  (1883-84),  were  followed  in  1884  by  prelimi- 
nary legislation  in  the  direction  of  the  present  De- 
partment of  Labor. 

Among  those  bills  was  one  in  the  Senate  for  a 
"Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics,"  introduced  by  Senator 
Blair.  In  the  House  there  was  one  for  a  "Bureau  of 
Statistics  of  Labor  and  Industries,"  by  Representa- 
tive O'Neill;  one  for  a  "Department  of  Labor  Statis- 
tics," by  Representative  McKinley  (afterward  Pres- 
ident) ;  one  for  a  "Department  of  Industry,"  by 


CREATING  DEPARTMENT  OF  LABOR     149 

Representative  Foran;  and  one  for  a  "Bureau  of 
Labor  Statistics,"  by  Representative  Lamb.  Out  of 
these  an  act  was  framed.  As  a  result,  therefore,  of 
twenty  years  of  agitation  for  a  department  of  the 
Federal  Government  representative  of  the  interests  of 
wage  earners,  this  act,  approved  June  27,  1884, 
created  a  bureau  in  the  Department  of  the  Interior 
by  the  name  of  the  "Bureau  of  Labor." 

That  original  Bureau  of  Labor  was  transformed 
in  1888  into  an  independent  department  by  the  name 
of  the  "Department  of  Labor,"  with  a  Commissioner 
of  Labor  as  chief,  but  he  was  not  of  sufficient  rank  to 
be  called  into  the  Cabinet  by  the  President.  This 
Bureau  of  Labor,  as  it  was  again  called,  was  placed 
in  1903  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Department  of 
Commerce  and  Labor. 

Meanwhile,  the  original  agitation  for  a  Department 
of  Labor  with  a  Secretary  of  Labor  in  the  President's 
Cabinet  continued.  In  1885  Representative  "Weaver 
introduced  a  bill  for  an  executive  Department  of 
Labor  with  a  Secretary  of  Labor.  General  "Weaver's 
bill  was  referred  to  the  Committee  on  Labor  and  got 
no  farther;  but  during  the  next  eighteen  years  sev- 
eral bills  having  the  same  or  a  similar  purpose  were 
introduced.  At  the  end  of  that  time  substantial  leg- 
islative progress  was  made. 

In  form  these  bills  were  of  considerable  variety, 
although  their  purpose  appears  to  have  been  much  the 
same.  Some  were  in  title  quite  like  some  of  those  in- 
troduced during  the  period  preceding  the  creation  of 
the  original  Bureau  of  Labor.  Among  them  were 
bills  to  establish,  respectively,  a  "Department  of 
Agriculture  and  Labor,"  a  "Department  of  Industry 


150  W.  B.  WILSON 

and  Bureau  of  Labor,"  a  "Department  of  Labor,"  a 
"Department  of  Agriculture  and  Industry,"  and  a 
"Department  of  Industries."  None  was  enacted. 

During  this  second  period,  however,  several  bills 
of  a  somewhat  different  character  and  purpose  were 
introduced  which  ultimately  played  an  important 
part  in  the  creation  of  the  present  Department  of 
Labor.  Whatever  the  title  any  of  them  may  have 
borne,  the  object  of  all  was  a  "Department  of  Com- 
merce." These  proposals  for  an  executive  depart- 
ment in  the  interest  of  commercial  business  being 
finally  blended  with  those  for  an  executive  department 
in  the  interest  of  the  welfare  of  wage  earners,  the 
Department  of  Commerce  and  Labor  was  created  by 
act  of  Congress  approved  February  14,  1903. 

For  ten  years  thereafter  the  welfare  of  wage  earn- 
ers of  the  United  States  was  consequently  intrusted  to 
an  executive  department  designed  to  represent  the  in- 
terests of  employers  also.  This  amalgamated  repre- 
sentation of  interests  that  are  at  times  in  serious  con- 
flict proved  unsatisfactory.  An  executive  depart- 
ment, the  same  in  principle  as  that  which  had  for 
nearly  half  a  century  been  urged  in  the  interest  of 
wage  earners,  was  demanded  with  greater  popular 
emphasis  than  before.  After  ten  years,  the  Depart- 
ment of  Commerce  and  Labor  being  transformed  into 
the  Department  of  Commerce,  the  present  Depart- 
ment of  Labor  was  created  by  the  act  of  Congress  on 
March  4,  1913,  entitled  "An  act  to  create  a  Depart- 
ment of  Labor."  As  Mr.  Wilson  was  Chairman  of  the 
House  Committee  on  Labor  during  the  fight,  he  was 
very  instrumental  in  bringing  it  about. 

All  functions  relating  more  especially  to  the  busi- 


CREATING  DEPARTMENT  OF  LABOR  151 

ness  side  of  industrial  problems  were  by  that  act  as- 
signed to  the  Department  of  Commerce,  while  the  De- 
partment of  Labor  was  more  especially  charged  with 
those  that  relate  to  the  welfare  of  wage  earners. 

Formal  organization  of  the  Department  of  Labor 
began  with  the  date  of  its  creation,  March  4,  1913, 
under  the  following  organic  act  approved  that  day : 

"Be  it  enacted  by  the  Senate  and  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives of  the  United  States  of  America  in  Con- 
gress assembled,  That  there  is  hereby  created  an  ex- 
ecutive department  in  the  Government  to  be  called 
the  Department  of  Labor,  with  a  Secretary  of  Labor, 
who  shall  be  the  head  thereof  to  be  appointed  by  the 
President,  by  and  with  the  advice  and  consent  of  the 
Senate ;  and  who  shall  receive  a  salary  of  $12,000  per 
annum,  and  whose  tenure  of  office  shall  be  like  that  of 
the  heads  of  other  executive  departments ;  and  section 
one  hundred  and  fifty-eight  of  the  Revised  Statutes 
is  hereby  amended  to  include  such  department,  and 
the  provisions  of  title  four  of  the  Revised  Statutes, 
including  all  amendments  thereto,  are  hereby  made 
applicable  to  said  department;  and  the  Department 
of  Commerce  and  Labor  shall  hereafter  be  called  the 
Department  of  Commerce,  and  the  Secretary  thereof 
shall  be  called  the  Secretary  of  Commerce,  and  the  act 
creating  the  said  Department  of  Commerce  and  Labor 
is  hereby  amended  accordingly.  The  purpose  of  the 
Department  of  Labor  shall  be  to  foster,  promote,  and 
develop  the  welfare  of  the  wage  earners  of  the 
United  States,  to  improve  their  working  conditions, 
and  to  advance  their  opportunities  for  profitable  em- 
ployment. The  said  Secretary  shall  cause  a  seal  of 
office  to  be  made  for  the  said  department  of  such  de- 


152  W.  B.  WILSON 

vice  as  the  President  shall  approve  and  judicial  no- 
tice shall  be  taken  of  the  said  seal. 

' '  Sec.  2.  That  there  shall  be  in  said  department  an 
Assistant  Secretary  of  Labor,  to  be  appointed  by  the 
President,  who  shall  receive  a  salary  of  $5,000  a  year. 
He  shall  perform  such  duties  as  shall  be  prescribed  by 
the  Secretary  or  required  by  law.  There  shall  also  be 
one  chief  clerk  and  a  disbursing  clerk,  and  such  other 
clerical  assistants,  inspectors,  and  special  agents  as 
may  from  time  to  time  be  provided  for  by  Congress. 
The  Auditor  for  the  State  and  Other  Departments 
shall  receive  and  examine  all  accounts  of  salaries  and 
incidental  expenses  of  the  office  of  the  Secretary  of 
Labor  and  of  all  bureaus  and  offices  under  his  direc- 
tion, and  all  accounts  relating  to  all  other  business 
within  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Department  of  Labor, 
and  certify  the  balances  arising  thereon  to  the  Di- 
vision of  Bookkeeping  and  Warrants  and  send  forth- 
with a  copy  of  each  certificate  to  the  Secretary  of 
Labor. 

"Sec.  3.  That  the  following  named  offices,  bureaus, 
divisions,  and  branches  of  the  public  service  now  and 
heretofore  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Department 
of  Commerce  and  Labor,  and  all  that  pertains  to  the 
same,  known  as  the  Commissioner  General  of  Im- 
migration, the  Commissioners  of  Immigration,  the 
Bureau  of  Immigration  and  Naturalization,  the  Di- 
vision of  Information,  the  Division  of  Naturaliza- 
tion, and  the  Immigration  Service  at  large,  the 
Bureau  of  Labor,  the  Children's  Bureau,  and  the 
Commissioner  of  Labor,  be,  and  the  same  hereby 
are,  transferred  from  the  Department  of  Commerce 
and  Labor  to  the  Department  of  Labor,  and  the 


CREATING  DEPARTMENT  OF  LABOR  153 

same  shall  hereafter  remain  under  the  jurisdiction 
and  supervision  of  the  last-named  department.  The 
Bureau  of  Immigration  and  Naturalization  is  hereby 
divided  into  two  bureaus,  to  be  known  hereafter  as  the 
Bureau  of  Immigration  and  the  Bureau  of  Natural- 
ization, and  the  titles  Chief  Division  of  Naturaliza- 
tion and  Assistant  Chief  shall  be  Commissioner  of 
Naturalization  and  Deputy  Commissioner  of  Natu- 
ralization. The  Commissioner  of  Naturalization  or,  in 
his  absence,  the  Deputy  Commissioner  of  Naturaliza- 
tion shall  be  the  administrative  officer  in  charge  of 
the  Bureau  of  Naturalization  and  of  the  administra- 
tion of  the  naturalization  laws  under  the  immediate 
direction  of  the  Secretary  of  Labor,  to  whom  he  shall 
report  directly  upon  all  naturalization  matters  an- 
nually and  as  otherwise  required,  and  the  appoint- 
ments of  these  two  officers  shall  be  made  in  the  same 
manner  as  appointments  to  competitive  classified  civil 
service  positions.  The  Bureau  of  Labor  shall  here- 
after be  known  as  the  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics,  and 
the  Commissioner  of  the  Bureau  of  Labor  shall  here- 
after be  known  as  the  Commissioner  of  Labor  Statis- 
tics; and  all  the  powers  and  duties  heretofore  pos- 
sessed by  the  Commissioner  of  Labor  shall  be  retained 
and  exercised  by  the  Commissioner  of  Labor  Statis- 
tics; and  the  administration  of  the  act  of  May  thir- 
tieth, nineteen  hundred  and  eight,  granting  to  certain 
employees  of  the  United  States  the  right  to  receive 
from  it  compensation  for  injuries  sustained  in  the 
course  of  their  employment. 

' '  Sec.  4.  That  the  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics,  under 
the  direction  of  the  Secretary  of  Labor,  shall  collect, 
collate,  and  report  at  least  once  a  year,  or  oftener  if 


154  W.  B.  WILSON 

necessary,  full  and  complete  statistics  of  the  condi- 
tions of  labor  and  the  products  and  distribution  of  the 
products  of  the  same,  and  to  this  end  said  Secretary 
shall  have  power  to  employ  any  or  either  of  the 
bureaus  provided  for  his  department  and  to  rearrange 
such  statistical  work  and  to  distribute  or  consolidate 
the  same  as  may  be  deemed  desirable  in  the  public  in- 
terests; and  said  Secretary  shall  also  have  authority 
to  call  upon  other  departments  of  the  Government  for 
statistical  data  and  results  obtained  by  them;  and 
said  Secretary  of  Labor  may  collate,  arrange,  and 
publish  such  statistical  information  so  obtained  in 
such  manner  as  to  him  may  seem  wise. 

' '  Sec.  5.  That  the  official  records  and  papers  now  on 
file  and  pertaining  exclusively  to  the  business  of  any 
bureau,  office,  department,  or  branch  of  the  public 
service  in  this  act  transferred  to  the  Department  of 
Labor,  together  with  the  furniture  now  in  use  in  such 
bureau,  office,  department,  or  branch  of  the  public 
service,  shall  be,  and  hereby  are,  transferred  to  the 
Department  of  Labor. 

' '  Sec.  6.  That  the  Secretary  of  Labor  shall  have 
charge  in  the  building  or  premises  occupied  by  or  ap- 
propriated to  the  Department  of  Labor,  of  the  library, 
furniture,  fixtures,  records,  and  other  property  per- 
taining to  it  or  hereafter  acquired  for  use  in  its  busi- 
ness ;  he  shall  be  allowed  to  expend  for  periodicals  and 
the  purpose  of  the  library  and  for  rental  of  ap- 
propriate quarters  for  the  accommodation  of  the  De- 
partment of  Labor  within  the  District  of  Columbia, 
and  for  all  other  incidental  expenses,  such  sums  as 
Congress  may  provide  from  time  to  time;  Provided, 
however,  That  where  any  office,  bureau,  or  branch  of 


CREATING  DEPARTMENT  OF  LABOR  155 

the  public  service  transferred  to  the  Department  of 
Labor  by  this  act  is  occupying  rented  buildings  or 
premises,  it  may  still  continue  to  do  so  until  other 
suitable  quarters  are  provided  for  its  use;  And  pro- 
vided further,  That  all  offices,  clerks,  and  employees 
not  employed  in  any  of  the  bureaus,  offices,  depart- 
ments, or  branches  of  the  public  service  in  this  act 
transferred  to  the  Department  of  Labor  are  each  and 
all  hereby  transferred  to  said  department  at  their 
present  grades  and  salaries,  except  where  otherwise 
provided  in  this  act ;  And  provided  further,  That  all 
laws  prescribing  the  work  and  defining  the  duties  of 
the  several  bureaus,  offices,  departments,  or  branches 
of  the  public  service  by  this  act  transferred  to  and 
made  a  part  of  the  Department  of  Labor  shall,  so  far 
as  the  same  are  not  in  conflict  with  the  provisions  of 
this  act,  remain  in  full  force  and  effect,  to  be  executed 
under  the  direction  of  the  Secretary  of  Labor. 

"Sec.  7.  That  there  shall  be  a  Solicitor  of  the  De- 
partment of  Justice  for  the  Department  of  Labor, 
whose  salary  shall  be  $5,000  per  annum. 

"Sec.  8.  That  the  Secretary  of  Labor  shall  have 
power  to  act  as  mediator  and  to  appoint  commissioners 
of  conciliation  in  labor  disputes  whenever  in  his  judg- 
ment the  interests  of  industrial  peace  may  require  it 
to  be  done;  and  all  duties  performed  and  all  power 
and  authority  now  possessed  or  exercised  by  the  head 
of  any  executive  department  in  and  over  any  bureau, 
office,  officer,  board,  branch,  or  division  of  the  public 
service  by  this  act  transferred  to  the  Department  of 
Labor,  or  any  business  arising  therefrom  or  pertain- 
ing thereto,  or  in  relation  to  the  duties  performed  by 
and  authority  conferred  by  law  upon  such  bureau, 


156  W.  B.  WILSON 

officer,  office,  board,  branch,  or  division  of  the  public 
service,  whether  of  an  appellate  or  revisory  character 
or  otherwise,  shall  hereafter  be  vested  in  and  exercised 
by  the  head  of  the  said  Department  of  Labor. 

' '  Sec.  9.  That  the  Secretary  of  Labor  shall  annu- 
ally, at  the  close  of  each  fiscal  year,  make  a  report  in 
writing  to  Congress,  giving  an  account  of  all  moneys 
received  and  disbursed  by  him  and  his  department  and 
describing  the  work  done  by  the  department.  He  shall 
also,  from  time  to  time,  make  such  special  investiga- 
tions and  reports  as  he  may  be  required  to  do  by  the 
President,  or  by  Congress,  or  which  he  himself  may 
deem  necessary. 

"Sec.  10.  That  the  Secretary  of  Labor  shall  in- 
vestigate and  report  to  Congress  a  plan  of  co-ordina- 
tion of  the  activities,  duties,  and  powers  of  the  office 
of  the  Secretary  of  Labor  with  the  activities,  duties, 
and  powers  of  the  present  bureaus,  commissions,  and 
departments,  so  far  as  they  relate  to  labor  and  its  con- 
ditions, in  order  to  harmonize  and  unify  such  activ- 
ities, duties,  and  powers,  with  a  view  to  further  legis- 
lation to  further  define  the  duties  and  powers  of  such 
Department  of  Labor. 

"Sec.  11.  That  this  act  shall  take  effect  March 
fourth,  nineteen  hundred  and  thirteen,  and  all  acts  or 
parts  of  acts  inconsistent  with  this  act  are  hereby  re- 
pealed. ' ' 


CHAPTEB  XVI 
THE  ORIGINAL  BUREAUS 

CREATED  by  act  of  Congress  approved  June  27, 
1884,  the  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics  (at  first  called 
the  "Bureau  of  Labor,"  then  the  "Department  of 
Labor,"  again  the  "Bureau  of  Labor,"  and  finally 
the  "Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics")  was  the  nucleus 
for  the  Congressional  legislation  which  culminated 
nearly  thirty  years  later  in  the  creation  of  the  present 
Department  of  Labor. 

When  first  organized,  January,  1885,  the  Bureau 
of  Labor  was  under  the  direction  of  Carroll  D. 
Wright  as  Commissioner  of  Labor.  By  the  act  of  its 
creation  the  commissioner  was  required  to  "collect 
information  on  the  subject  of  labor,  its  relation  to 
capital,  the  hours  of  labor  and  the  earnings  of  labor- 
ing men  and  women,  and  the  means  of  promoting  their 
material,  intellectual,  and  moral  prosperity."  Its 
policy  was  formally  declared  (February  4,  1885) 
soon  after  its  original  organization,  in  a  letter  ad- 
dressed by  the  Commissioner  of  Labor  to  the  Secre- 
tary of  the  Interior,  as  follows: 

"It  should  be  remembered  that  a  Bureau  of  Labor 
cannot  solve  industrial  or  social  problems,  nor  can  it 
bring  direct  returns  in  a  material  way  to  the  citizens 
of  the  country;  but  its  work  must  be  classed  among 
educational  efforts,  and  by  judicious  investigations 
and  the  fearless  publication  thereof  it  may  and  should 
enable  the  people  to  comprehend  more  clearly  and 

157 


158  W.  B.  WILSON 

more  fully  many  of  the  problems    which    now   vex 
them." 

During  the  four  years  after  its  organization  in  the 
Department  of  the  Interior,  this  Bureau  issued  four 
annual  reports  covering  the  information  collated  as 
required  by  its  organic  act.  The  act  of  Congress 
which  at  the  end  of  that  period  made  the  Bureau  in- 
dependent of  any  of  the  executive  departments,  un- 
der the  name  of  the  Department  of  Labor,  but  without 
representation  in  the  Cabinet,  provided: 

"That  there  shall  be  at  the  seat  of  government  a 
Department  of  Labor,  the  general  design  and  duties 
of  which  shall  be  to  acquire  and  diffuse  among  the 
people  of  the  United  States  useful  information  on  sub- 
jects connected  with  labor,  in  the  most  general  and 
comprehensive  sense  of  that  word,  and  especially  upon 
its  relation  to  capital,  the  hours  of  labor,  the  material, 
social,  intellectual,  and  moral  prosperity." 

Under  that  act,  approved  June  13,  1888,  the  De- 
partment of  Labor,  as  this  Bureau  was  then  named, 
issued  14  annual  reports  and  9  special  reports,  and  be- 
tween July  1,  1903,  and  July  1,  1912,  as  a  Bureau  of 
the  Department  of  Commerce  and  Labor,  it  issued  7 
annual  and  3  special  reports.  A  number  of  miscel- 
laneous reports,  many  of  which  were  made  in  com- 
pliance with  the  special  direction  of  Congress,  were 
also  issued  by  the  Bureau. 

In  November,  1895,  the  Department  began  the  pub- 
lication of  a  bulletin  under  an  act  approved  March  2 
of  the  same  year.  This  bulletin  was  published  bi- 
monthly up  to  the  close  of  the  fiscal  year  ending  June 
30,  1912.  Its  general  departments  of  information 
were  as  follows:  (1)  Results  of  original  investiga- 


THE  ORIGINAL  BUREAUS  159 

tions;  (2)  digests  of  State  labor  reports;  (3)  digest 
of  foreign  labor  and  statistical  documents;  and  (4) 
current  decisions  of  courts  interpreting  labor  laws  or 
passing  upon  any  subject  involving  the  relations  of 
employer  and  employee,  and  the  reproduction  at  the 
end  of  each  year  of  new  laws  affecting  the  interests  of 
wage  workers,  whether  enacted  by  Congress  or  by 
State  Legislatures. 

The  publication  of  the  series  of  annual  and  special 
reports  and  of  bimonthly  bulletins  having  been  dis- 
continued at  the  close  of  the  fiscal  year  ending  June 
30,  1912,  bulletins  have  since  then  been  published  at 
irregular  intervals.  Each  number  is  devoted  to  one  of 
a  series  of  general  subjects.  Thus  far  these  have  been 
as  follows:  "Wholesale  Prices,"  "Retail  Prices  and 
Cost  of  Living,"  ""Wages  and  Hours  of  Labor," 
"Women  in  Industry,"  "Workmen's  Insurance  and 
Compensation"  (including  laws  relating  thereto), 
"Industrial  Accidents  and  Hygiene,"  "Conciliation 
and  Arbitration"  (including  strikes  and  lockouts), 
"Labor  Laws  of  the  United  States"  (including  deci- 
sions of  courts  relating  to  labor),  "Foreign  Labor 
Laws,"  and  "Miscellaneous"  series. 

As  previously  explained,  the  former  Department  of 
Labor  became,  July  1,  1903,  a  bureau  of  the  Depart- 
ment of  Commerce  and  Labor,  its  name  being  altered 
to  "Bureau  of  Labor."  Inasmuch,  however,  as  no 
provision  was  made  for  any  change  in  its  general  de- 
sign and  function,  its  work  was  continued  along  prac- 
tically the  same  lines  as  formerly.  The  act  approved 
March  4,  1913,  establishing  the  present  executive  De- 
partment of  Labor,  which  transferred  the  Bureau  of 
Labor  from  the  Department  of  Commerce  and  Labor 


ICO  W.  B.  WILSON 

to  this  new  department,  naming  it  the  "Bureau  of 
Labor  Statistics,"  provides  that  all  powers  and 
duties  theretofore  possessed  by  the  Commissioner  of 
Labor  shall  be  retained  and  exercised  by  the  Commis- 
sioner of  Labor  Statistics,  and  this  is  the  way  the 
matter  stands  today.  The  office  of  Commissioner  was 
held  by  Dr.  Royal  Meeker,  one  of  the  nation's  most 
accurate  and  far-sighted  statisticians. 

The  second  of  the  four  bureaus  transferred  from  the 
former  Department  of  Commerce  and  Labor  to  the 
Department  of  Labor,  by  the  act  creating  the  latter, 
was  the  Bureau  of  Immigration.  Its  function  is  to 
execute  our  laws  relating  to  the  immigration  and  de- 
portation of  aliens  and  Chinese,  and  it  is  administered 
by  the  Commissioner  General  of  Immigration  under 
the  direction  and  with  the  approval  of  the  Secretary 
of  Labor. 

Prior  to  the  organization  of  this  Bureau,  the  various 
acts  of  Congress  regulating  immigration  were  admin- 
istered by  State  officials  under  the  direction  and  con- 
trol of  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  the  expense  be- 
ing defrayed  from  a  permanent  appropriation  pro- 
vided for  by  Congress  in  1882  and  known  as  the  ' '  Im- 
migrant Fund."  It  was  not  until  1891  that  the  or- 
ganization of  this  service  as  a  Federal  service  ex- 
clusively was  established.  By  an  act  of  Congress  of 
March  3  of  that  year  the  Federal  office  of  Superin- 
tendent of  Immigration  was  authorized  and  the  duties 
theretofore  performed  by  State  officials  under  the  im- 
migration acts  of  Congress  were  transferred  to  inspec- 
tion officers  under  his  control.  He  and  they,  however, 
were  placed  under  the  direction  of  the  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury,  as  the  State  officials  who  preceded  them  had 


THE  ORIGINAL  BUREAUS  161 

been.  The  title  of  Superintendent  of  Immigration  was 
changed  in  1895  to  its  present  form  of  Commissioner 
General  of  Immigration.  Upon  the  establishment  in 
1903  of  the  Department  of  Commerce  and  Labor,  the 
Commissioner  General  and  his  official  force,  then 
known  as  the  Bureau  of  Immigration,  were  trans- 
ferred to  that  department. 

By  act  of  Congress,  approved  June  29,  1906,  the 
Bureau  of  Immigration  was  given  charge  of  the  ad- 
ministrative execution  of  the  naturalization  laws,  a 
Division  of  Naturalization  within  the  bureau  was  or- 
ganized and  the  title  of  the  bureau  was  changed  ac- 
cordingly to  "Bureau  of  Immigration  and  Naturali- 
zation." But  a  separate  bureau  having  been  made  of 
the  Division  of  Naturalization  by  the  organic  act  of 
this  department,  the  Bureau  of  Immigration  and 
Naturalization  was  by  the  same  act  restored  to  its 
original  functions,  reinvested  with  its  original  title 
of  Bureau  of  Immigration,  and,  though  remaining  in 
charge  of  the  Commissioner  General,  placed  under  the 
general  jurisdiction  of  the  Secretary  of  Labor. 

The  Bureau  of  Immigration,  like  the  Bureau  of 
Labor  Statistics,  did  not  come  under  the  jurisdiction 
of  the  Department  of  Labor  until  March  4, 1913.  The 
Commissioner  General  during  Mr.  Wilson's  regime 
was  Anthony  Caminetti. 

Until  early  in  August  immigration  was  not  far  from 
normal  by  the  standards  of  the  fiscal  year  ended  June 
30,  1913,  and  June  30,  1914.  Signs  of  extraordinary 
decline  in  transatlantic  arrivals  were  then  observed. 
Notwithstanding  this  and  the  subsequent  decline, 
however,  the  Department  was  embarrassed  by  alter- 
natives which  the  circumstances  presented  in  the  case 


162  W.  B.  WILSON 

of  nonadmissibles.  To  deport  was  to  subject  them  to 
the  dangers  of  destruction  or  capture  by  belligerents 
on  the  high  seas;  to  admit  them  outright  would  have 
been  indefensible;  and  detention  without  limit  would 
have  involved  unusual  expense  and  much  individual 
hardship.  In  this  emergency  the  Department  sus- 
pended all  Atlantic  deportations  until  assured  of 
safety  of  transport.  Meanwhile,  in  order  to  mitigate 
their  hardships,  aliens  indefinitely  awaiting  deporta- 
tion were  released  temporarily  under  bond.  In  the 
course  of  two  months  safety  of  transport  had  become 
general  enough  to  warrant  deportation  by  most  of  the 
Atlantic  lines,  and  in  this  respect  the  regular  practice 
was  resumed. 

For  a  satisfactory  administration  of  the  immigra- 
tion laws,  the  character  and  condition  of  immigrant 
stations  at  ports  of  entry  are  of  prime  importance. 
So  far,  therefore,  as  the  Department  of  Labor  is  per- 
mitted by  law  and  equipped  for  the  purpose,  it  aims 
to  make  these  stations  as  much  like  temporary  homes 
as  possible.  While  regulation  and  exclusion,  and 
therefore  detention,  are  necessary  in  respect  to  immi- 
gration, it  should  be  understood  by  all  who  partici- 
pate in  administering  these  laws  that  they  are  not  in- 
tended to  be  penalizing.  It  is  with  no  unfriendliness 
to  aliens  that  immigrants  are  detained  and  some  of 
them  excluded,  but  solely  for  the  protection  of  our 
own  people  and  our  own  institutions.  Indifference, 
then,  to  the  physical  or  mental  comfort  of  these  wards 
of  ours  from  other  lands  should  not  be  tolerated.  Ac- 
cordingly, every  reasonable  effort  is  made  by  the  De- 
partment, within  the  limits  of  the  appropriations,  to 


THE  ORIGINAL  BUREAUS  163 

minimize  the  necessary  hardships  of  their  detention 
and  to  abolish  all  that  are  not  necessary. 

By  Section  40  of  the  Immigration  Statutes,  enacted 
while  the  Bureau  of  Immigration  was  still  under  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  Department  of  Commerce  and 
Labor,  there  had  been  created  in  that  bureau  a  Divi- 
sion of  Information.  Its  purpose  was  to  promote  a 
beneficial  distribution  of  immigrants  and  to  furnish 
appropriate  information  to  immigrants  and  other 
persons.  Having  been  transferred  along  with  its 
supervising  bureau  to  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Depart- 
ment of  Labor  upon  the  creation  of  the  latter,  this 
division  came  under  the  influence  of  the  broad  statu- 
tory purpose  of  the  Department.  Its  powers  were 
consequently  so  far  expanded  by  implication  as  to 
open  the  way  for  greatly  improving  its  efficiency  and 
that  of  the  Department  in  connection  with  the  dis- 
tribution of  labor. 

From  its  creation  in  1907  until  December  31,  1917, 
this  Division  of  Information  engaged  in  the  distribu- 
tion of  aliens  and  others  in  a  restricted  way  under  its 
limited  powers.  During  that  period  it  built  up  a  dis- 
tribution branch  in  New  York  City  which  has  served 
not  only  its  own  purposes,  but  the  purposes  also  of  a 
model  for  the  other  distribution  branches  which  the 
Department  later  established.  This  extension  of  Fed- 
eral distribution  work  began  with  the  latter  part  of 
the  fiscal  year  1914. 

The  State  Labor  Commissioner  for  Oklahoma  tele- 
graphed Secretary  Wilson  on  May  25th  of  that  year 
as  to  the  possibility  of  supplying  harvest  help  to  his 
State.  ' '  We  will  need, ' '  he  telegraphed, ' '  from  12,000 
to  15,000  men  at  from  $2  to  $2.50  per  day,  with 


164  W.  B.  WILSON 

board,  to  help  harvest  our  wheat  and  thresh  same; 
and  85  per  cent,  of  the  men  so  employed  will  be  given 
employment  in  this  State  by  the  farmers  in  handling 
the  various  forage  crops,  which  promise  a  big  yield  at 
this  time,  thereby  guaranteeing  from  four  to  six 
months'  steady  work.  The  State  will  maintain  free 
employment  offices  at  Oklahoma  City,  Enid,  Wood- 
ward, Frederick,  and  other  points  in  the  State  to  help 
distribute  the  men,  and  any  publication  you  can  give 
this  matter  through  your  department  will  be  greatly 
appreciated  by  the  citizens  of  this  State." 

Responding  immediately  to  that  telegram  the  Secre- 
tary caused  it  to  be  embodied  in  a  bulletin — for  dis- 
play in  Post  Offices  and  publication  in  newspapers — 
which  notified  persons  desiring  harvesting  employ- 
ment to  apply  to  the  State  employment  offices  named 
in  the  telegram.  This  publicity  immediately  brought 
similar  appeals  from  Kansas,  Missouri,  and  South 
Dakota.  Thereupon  the  Department  issued  a  further 
bulletin  for  display  in  Post  Offices  and  publication  in 
newspapers.  It  was  the  second  bulletin  in  general 
substance  (that  with  reference  to  Oklahoma  having 
preceded  it),  but  the  first  in  the  systematic  plans  of 
the  Department  to  promote  the  welfare  of  wage  earn- 
ers of  the  United  States  in  this  way.  From  that  the 
work  grew  to  the  great  organization  created  by  John 
B.  Densmore,  Director  General  during  the  war,  with 
several  hundred  offices,  over  two  thousand  employees, 
and  the  most  complete  publicity  service. 

Anticipating  the  embarrassment,  loss,  and  suffering 
to  which  unemployed  wage  earners  have  long  been 
exposed  by  irresponsibly  advertised  opportunities, 
Secretary  Wilson  was  careful  to  phrase  the  bulletins 


THE  ORIGINAL  BUREAUS  165 

so  as  to  put  applicants  on  their  guard  with  reference 
to  wages,  to  the  probable  period  of  employment,  to 
the  character  and  circumstances  of  the  work  offered, 
and  to  the  responsibility  of  the  persons  promulgating 
the  call. 

Another  initial  experiment,  almost  coincident  in 
point  of  time,  had  to  do  with  displaced  factory  work- 
ers. Having  directed  the  facilities  of  the  Division  of 
Information  to  the  relief  of  wage-earning  victims  of 
the  disastrous  fire  of  June  25,  1914,  at  Salem,  Massa- 
chusetts, Secretary  Wilson  demonstrated  his  ability 
to  assist  wage  earners  thrown  out  of  employment  and 
made  homeless  by  public  calamities,  and  to  do  so  with- 
out displacing  or  otherwise  injuriously  affecting  other 
wage  earners. 

Favorably  impressed  with  the  results  of  both  those 
experiments,  which  had  terminated  near  the  close  of 
the  second  fiscal  year,  the  Department  began,  through 
the  Division  of  Information  and  with  the  aid  of  its 
supervisory  bureau,  the  Bureau  of  Immigration,  to 
organize  public  employment  exchanges  upon  the  na- 
tional scale  which  it  has  ever  since  been  developing. 

The  first  step  in  that  direction  was  to  establish 
eighteen  employment  zones,  with  a  public  employ- 
ment branch  station  in  each  zone  under  the  charge 
of  an  immigrant  inspector.  In  addition  to  these 
branches,  sub-branches  to  the  number  of  twenty-two 
were  established  in  prominent  points  in  each  zone,  and 
since  then  additional  sub-branches,  have  been  estab- 
lished at  immigration  stations. 

Evidence  that  private  employment  agencies  engage 
in  practices  calculated  to  injure  and  defraud  workers 
directed  to  employment  across  State  lines  was  ob- 


166  W.  B.  WILSON 

tained  during  the  year.  On  the  strength  of  this,  the 
Division  of  Information  recommended  that  a  law  be 
enacted  requiring  all  private  employment  agents  to 
obtain  a  license  from  and  to  make  reports  to  the  De- 
partment of  Labor,  and  that  for  any  act  of  injustice 
to  workmen  the  penalty  shall  be  imprisonment  rather 
than  a  fine. 

In  a  previous  report  the  Secretary  called  attention 
to  the  desirability  of  enabling  the  Interstate  Com- 
merce Commission  to  regulate  interstate  commerce  in 
explosives  on  water  as  it  is  now  authorized  to  regu- 
late such  commerce  on  land.  The  reference  was  to 
a  dangerous  situation  at  Ellis  Island.  The  immigra- 
tion station  at  Ellis  Island  was  endangered  by  the 
commercial  handling  of  high  explosives  near  by.  For 
nearly  three  years  this  had  caused  the  Secretary  much 
concern  for  the  safety  of  the  station  and  its  occu- 
pants. 

His  feeling  was  first  aroused  by  a  destructive  ex- 
plosion in  the  winter  of  1911  in  connection  with  a 
transshipment  of  explosives  at  a  railroad  wharf.  The 
explosion  occurred  at  a  point  considerably  farther 
from  Ellis  Island  then  the  point  at  which  shipments  of 
explosives  are  now  habitually  made.  It  damaged  the 
immigration  station  to  the  extent  of  more  than 
$25,000,  and  would  probably  have  caused  great  loss 
of  life  but  for  the  fortunate  fact  that  on  the  day  of 
the  explosion  there  had  been  no  arrival  of  immigrants 
at  the  station.  In  consequence  of  this  destructive  ex- 
plosion and  of  the  fact  that  explosives  are  commonly 
transshipped  within  about  half  that  distance  from 
the  station,  efforts  were  made  to  lessen  the  dangers 
of  those  transshipments  to  persons  and  property  on 


THE  ORIGINAL  BUREAUS  167 

Ellis  Island.  The  persistent  efforts  of  immigrant  of- 
ficials on  Ellis  Island  to  protect  the  station  and  its  oc- 
cupants from  the  dangers  they  anticipated  appeared 
to  have  been  baffled. 

Apparently  this  problem  presented  a  double  aspect. 
The  menace  to  the  Ellis  Island  Station  was  (1)  from 
vessels  loaded  with  explosives  and  sailing  the  waters 
of  the  harbor  in  that  neighborhood  or  anchoring 
there,  and  (2)  from  shipments  at  nearby  docks.  As 
to  the  first  aspect,  vessels  laden  with  explosives  were 
reported  as  moving  among  passenger  vessels  in  the 
harbor  in  reckless  disregard  of  life  and  property  and 
subject  to  little,  if  any,  legal  control.  It  seems  that 
although  local  authority  ends  with  the  piers  on  both 
sides — the  authority  of  Jersey  City  on  the  New  Jer- 
sey side,  the  authority  of  New  York  City  on  the  New 
York  side — the  Federal  Government  has  done  little, 
if  anything,  in  the  interest  of  safety  on  the  waters  be- 
tween, except  to  require  displays  of  a  red  flag  and  the 
use  of  particular  anchorage  grounds.  Ellis  Island 
was  endangered  by  the  anchorage  habitually  in  its 
immediate  vicinity  of  vessels  carrying  explosives. 
Some  vessels  so  loaded  are  said  to  anchor  clandestinely 
in  that  vicinity  even  now.  The  danger,  however,  is 
no  longer  as  a  rule  related  to  those  at  anchor  law- 
fully, unless  it  be  in  respect  to  the  quantity  of  ex- 
plosives they  are  allowed  to  carry. 

As  to  the  second  phase  of  the  problem,  transship- 
ments of  explosives  from  cars  to  vessels  at  docks  are 
made,  as  it  would  seem,  perilously  near  to  Ellis  Island. 
Were  a  catastrophe  to  occur,  responsible  Federal  of- 
ficials could  not  explain  their  own  inaction  by  refer- 
ring to  the  vigilance,  as  it  has  been  suggested  that 


168  W.  B.  WILSON 

they  may  do,  of  local  authorities.  Such  excuses, 
though  usually  accepted  before  disasters,  are  seldom 
admitted  afterward.  This  consideration  was  evi- 
dently taken  into  account  by  Commissioner  Williams. 
For,  upon  finding  all  other  remedial  doors  closed,  he 
advised  that  legislation  covering  the  whole  subject 
be  urgently  sought  of  Congress.  Owing  to  the  fact 
that  he  was  once  an  immigrant  at  the  Island,  Secre- 
tary Wilson  took  great  interest  in  it  as  in  other  im- 
migration, naturalization,  and  labor  matters,  where 
human  welfare  was  involved.  Under  his  direction 
marked  improvements  in  administration  were  under- 
taken at  Ellis  Island.  Special  efforts  as  praiseworthy 
and  effective  as  they  were  unusual  were  made  there  to 
minimize  all  necessary  and  to  abolish  all  unnecessary 
hardships  of  detention. 

The  third  of  the  transformed  bureaus  was  the 
Bureau  of  Naturalization.  When  the  title  of  the 
original  Bureau  of  Immigration  was  altered  to  Bureau 
of  Immigration  and  Naturalization,  authority  to  ad- 
minister the  laws  for  the  naturalization  of  aliens  was 
vested  in  it.  These  laws,  however,  were  placed  under 
the  special  charge  of  a  division  of  the  bureau  to 
which  that  function  was  particularly  assigned.  Upon 
the  creation  of  the  Department  of  Labor,  the  organic 
act,  restoring  the  Bureau  of  Immigration  and  Natu- 
ralization to  its  original  name  and  purpose,  raised  the 
Division  of  Naturalization  to  the  rank  of  a  bureau, 
placing  it  in  charge  of  a  Commissioner  of  Naturaliza- 
tion, Richard  K.  Campbell,  and  under  the  jurisdic- 
tion of  the  Secretary  of  Labor. 

Prior  to  the  act  of  Congress  cited  above,  that  of 
June  29,  1906,  there  was  no  concentrated  supervision 


THE  ORIGINAL  BUREAUS  169 

of  naturalization  proceedings  nor  any  centralized 
record  of  naturalization.  Frauds  were  consequently 
prevalent,  and  evidence  of  admissions,  rejections,  and 
nonapplication  was  often  difficult  to  secure.  Some  of 
the  inconveniences  of  that  chaotic  condition  come  to 
the  surface  occasionally  now  upon  request  for  proof 
or  disproof  of  naturalization  proceedings  prior  to 
September  27,  1906.  As  to  all  proceedings  after  the 
act  of  1906  went  into  operation,  the  records  of  the 
Bureau  of  Naturalization  are  complete.  Whether  any 
alien  has  since  that  time  made  a  declaration  of  inten- 
tion or  not,  or  been  naturalized  or  not,  and  no  matter 
in  which  of  the  2,527  courts  over  the  whole  United 
States  that  have  been  or  are  now  doing  naturalizing 
work,  the  fact  can  be  conclusively  and  easily  proved 
by  reference  to  these  records.  And  over  the  pro- 
ceedings themselves  the  Bureau  of  Naturalization 
maintains  continuous  scrutiny.  It  investigates  the 
circumstances  of  each  application  and  submits  to  the 
courts  on  their  respective  naturalization  days  such 
evidence  as  it  is  able  to  discover  relative  to  the  merits 
of  cases  then  to  be  decided. 

For  this  purpose  the  country  is  districted  with 
reference  to  the  volume  of  naturalization  business  and 
its  distribution.  There  are  in  all  eleven  naturaliza- 
tion districts.  The  largest  by  volume  of  business, 
though  next  to  the  smallest  territorially,  has  its  head- 
quarters at  New  York  City.  It  comprises  most  of  the 
State  of  New  York  east  of  Auburn  and  includes  Jer- 
sey City,  New  Jersey.  The  largest  district  territori- 
ally, though  among  the  smaller  in  volume  of  business, 
has  its  headquarters  at  Washington,  and  comprises 
eastern  Maryland,  the  District  of  Columbia,  Virginia, 


170  W.  B.  WILSON 

North  and  South  Carolina,  Georgia,  Kentucky,  Ten- 
nessee, Florida,  Mississippi,  Louisiana,  and  Texas. 
Headquarters  of  the  rest  of  the  eleven  districts,  re- 
spectively, are  at  Boston,  Philadelphia,  Pittsburgh, 
Chicago,  St.  Louis,  St.  Paul,  Denver,  Seattle,  and  San 
Francisco. 

Of  course  the  Secretary  of  Labor  cannot  permit 
the  Bureau  of  Naturalization  to  solicit  or  to  urge 
aliens  domiciled  in  this  country  to  take  the  initial 
steps  for  naturalization.  Individuals  and  unofficial 
organizations  might  properly  do  so.  But  the  Depart- 
ment of  Labor  is  an  executive  branch  of  the  Federal 
Government,  which  endeavors  to  maintain  friendly  re- 
lations with  all  the  nations  of  the  world ;  and  for  this 
Department  to  permit  one  of  its  branches  to  solicit 
aliens  to  renounce  allegiance  to  their  own  Govern- 
ments might  be  reasonably  regarded  by  those  Govern- 
ments as  unfriendly  on  the  part  of  our  Government. 
For  this  reason  the  Department  of  Labor  has  not  at- 
tempted to  induce  aliens  to  become  Americanized  un- 
til the  aliens  themselves  have  of  their  own  volition  re- 
nounced their  former  allegiance. 

But  when  an  alien  applies  in  regular  form  for 
American  citizenship,  the  relations  between  himself 
and  the  Department  of  Labor,  and  between  his  orig- 
inal Government  and  the  Government  of  the  United 
States,  are  thereupon  altered.  That  he  remains  an 
alien  for  at  .least  two  years  afterward  is  true.  It  is 
true  also  that  he  may  be  considered  as  still  subject  in 
some  degree  to  his  original  Government,  and  that  his 
original  Government  may  be  entitled  in  some  degree 
to  international  courtesy  regarding  him.  For  his  first 
application  for  American  citizenship — his  preliminary 


THE  ORIGINAL  BUREAUS  171 

declaration  of  intention  to  become  an  American  cit- 
izen— does  not  absolutely  do  away  with  his  original 
allegiance.  What  he  does  in  making  application  is 
voluntarily  to  declare  on  oath,  two  years  at  least  prior 
to  his  admission  to  American  citizenship  and  after  he 
is  eighteen  years  of  age,  that  it  is  his  intention  in 
good  faith  to  renounce  his  foreign  allegiance,  to  re- 
gide  permanently  in  the  United  States,  and  to  be- 
come a  citizen  thereof  if  allowed  by  our  courts  to  do 
go.  Having  made  this  declaration  without  pressure 
from  our  Government,  he  comes  legitimately  within 
the  jurisdiction  of  the  Bureau  of  Naturalization.  For 
such  declared  citizens  Secretary  Wilson  always  has 
a  warm  spot  in  his  heart,  urging  all  such  declarants 
for  American  citizenship  to  Americanize  themselves 
to  the  fullest  extent  possible. 

Secretary  Wilson  is  of  the  opinion  that  he  is 
bound  to  advise  and  to  urge  the  declarant  for  citizen- 
ship to  Americanize,  to  observe  and  foster  the  de- 
velopment of  his  qualifications  with  reference  to  the 
naturalization  laws,  and  to  bring  him  into  sympa- 
thetic relations  with  such  educational  opportunities 
as  are  within  his  reach,  from  the  time  of  his  lawfully 
made  declaration  of  intention  until  the  declaration 
becomes  absolute  or  the  declarant  is  finally  admitted 
or  rejected  by  the  courts. 

The  first  notable  mass  meeting  to  welcome  the 
newly  naturalized,  which  was  held  in  the  Auditorium 
at  Chicago  on  Washington's  Birthday  of  1914,  was 
participated  in  by  the  Secretary.  He  aided  a  similar 
meeting  in  Cleveland,  Ohio,  on  the  Fourth  of  July, 
1914.  In  the  year  1915  he  participated  in  a  meeting 
of  a  like  nature  at  Philadelphia,  and  had  the  Presi- 


172  W.  B.  WILSON 

dent  of  the  United  States  deliver  an  address  in  per- 
son. The  Secretary  then  held  an  Americanization 
Conference  at  Philadelphia,  and  later  one  at  Wash- 
ington, with  reference  to  the  importance  and  possi- 
bilities of  public-school  facilities  for  preparing  declar- 
ants for  their  final  applications  for  citizenship.* 

This  appeal  by  Secretary  Wilson  to  aliens  seeking 
American  citizenship  is  probably  the  first  ever  made 
by  the  Federal  Government  with  the  direct  purpose 
of  carrying  officially  to  the  candidates  a  realizing  sense 
ef  the  educational  opportunities  that  are  open  to 
them.  It  is  also  the  first  official  effort  to  promote 
preparation  for  citizenship  by  aliens  who  announce 
their  intention  of  applying  for  naturalization. 

In  so  far  as  applicants  for  citizenship  availed  them- 
selves of  these  opportunities  the  Secretary  believed 
that  they  acquired  a  keener  appreciation  of  further 
ones — better  work,  better  wages,  better  standards,  bet- 
ter family  life,  better  community  life,  and  a  better 
understanding  not  merely  of  our  Constitution  and 
our  laws,  but  of  our  history,  institutions,  and  ideals. 

To  understand  Americanization  Secretary  Wilson 
insisted  that  we  must  turn  back  to  the  Declaration 
of  Independence,  which  breathed  the  breath  of  na- 
tional life  into  our  colonial  federation.  "All  men 
are  created  equal  and  endowed  with  certain  unalien- 
able  rights,  among  which  are  life,  liberty,  and  the 

*This  convention  was  held  July  10  to  15,  1916.  It  was 
composed  of  public  school  officials,  teachers,  and  representa- 
tives of  organizations  interested  in  domiciled  foreigners.  Offi- 
cials of  this  Department  and  of  other  executive  Departments, 
representatives  of  the  legislative  and  judicial  branches  of  the 
Government,  and  professional  and  business  men  attended  the 
convention  and  took  part  in  its  deliberations.  The  principal 
speaker  was  the  President  of  the  United  States. 


THE  ORIGINAL  BUREAUS  173 

pursuit  of  happiness."  Not  equality  of  height,  or 
weight,  or  strength,  or  mind,  or  culture,  or  even  of 
morality,  but  equality  of  rights  under  the  law;  and 
not  equality  of  rights  for  some  or  for  many,  but  for 
all.  That  sentiment,  the  lifeblood  of  American  insti- 
tutions, was  profoundly  stirred  again  by  Lincoln  in  his 
address  at  Gettysburg:  "Our  fathers  brought  forth 
on  this  continent  a  new  nation,  conceived  in  liberty 
and  dedicated  to  the  proposition  that  all  men  are 
created  equal. ' '  But  to  sense  the  ideal  of  our  national 
life  is  not  enough.  If  we  could  understand  Ameri- 
canization, we  must  face  the  truth  that  even  the  in- 
stitutions of  this  country  are  not  yet  altogether  vital- 
ized by  its  ideal.  To  make  progress  in  that  respect 
is  our  task  and  the  task  of  Americans  yet  to  come. 
Working  toward  American  ideals  is  all  our  prede- 
cessors have  done,  all  they  could  do,  the  best  of  them, 
and  it  is  all  that  we  can  hope  to  do.  This  we  must 
do,  though/  if  we  would  regard  ourselves,  no  matter 
where  we  were  born,  as  having  been  Americanized. 

What  the  future  may  bring  forth  is  uncertain ;  but 
it  is  hoped  that  out  of  Secretary  Wilson 's  efforts  may 
grow  a  system  which  will  largely  relieve  the  courts 
of  their  heaviest  burdens  in  the  naturalization  of 
aliens  while  securing  better  standards  of  Americaniza- 
tion among  naturalized  citizens  than  has  been  possible 
heretofore. 

The  Secretary  also  dreamed  that  the  time  might 
come  when  a  public  school  certificate  of  American- 
ization would  be  accepted  by  the  courts  as  evidence 
of  the  requisite  intellectual  qualifications  for  citizen- 
ship. In  that  event  and  by  a  slight  extension  of  the 
practice  this  certificate  properly  might  cover  all  the 


174  W.  B.  WILSON 

other  qualifications;  for  who  could  better  judge  of 
the  moral  character  and  American  spirit  of  an  appli- 
cant than  the  public  school  teachers  under  whose 
tutelage  he  had  been  for  two  years  preparing  for 
citizenship  ? 

Let  it  not  be  supposed,  however,  that  Secretary 
Wilson  was  under  any  impression  that  alien  appli- 
cants for  citizenship  alone  needed  Americanization. 
He  was  very  far  from  thinking  that  facilities  for  im- 
provement in  the  qualifications  for  citizenship  should 
be  thrust  upon  alien  seekers  for  citizenship  without 
being  brought  as  freely  and  as  emphatically  to  the 
attention  also  of  the  citizen  born.  It  only  so  happens 
that  the  governmental  machinery  then  available  to 
the  Department  of  Labor  for  promoting  Americaniza- 
tion was  limited  to  aliens  who  have  declared  their 
intention  of  becoming  citizens.  Moreover,  the  other 
work  is  under  charge  of  the  Department  of  the  In- 
terior. 

The  fourth  of  the  older  bureaus  was  the  Children's 
Bureau.  This  was  established  by  act  of  Congress, 
approved  April  9,  1912.  Its  functions  are  prescribed 
by  the  second  section  of  that  act  as  follows : 

"That  the  said  bureau  shall  be  under  the  direction 
of  a  chief,  to  be  appointed  by  the  President,  by  and 
with  the  advice  and  consent  of  the  Senate,  and  who 
shall  receive  an  annual  compensation  of  five  thousand 
dollars.  The  said  bureau  shall  investigate  and  re- 
port to  said  Department  upon  all  matters  pertaining 
to  the  welfare  of  children  and  child  life  among  all 
classes  of  our  people,  and  shall  especially  investigate 
the  questions  of  infant  mortality,  the  birth  rate,  or- 
phanage, juvenile  courts,  desertion,  dangerous  occu- 


THE  ORIGINAL  BUREAUS  175 

pations,  accidents  and  diseases  of  children,  employ- 
ment, legislation  affecting  children  in  the  several 
States  and  Territories.  But  no  official,  or  agent,  or 
representative  of  said  Bureau  shall,  over  the  objec- 
tion of  the  head  of  the  family,  enter  any  house  used 
exclusively  as  a  family  residence.  The  chief  of  said 
Bureau  may  from,  time  to  time  publish  the  results  of 
these  investigations  in  such  manner  and  to  such  extent 
as  may  be  prescribed  by  the  Secretary  of  Labor? 

The  first  chief  of  this  Bureau  was  Miss  Julia  C. 
Lathrop,  a  most  able  and  worthy  woman. 

Established  as  a  result  of  the  belief  that  the  Fed- 
eral Government  should  assist  in  the  protection  and 
betterment  of  children,  by  investigations  and  by 
popularization  of  useful  information,  the  Children's 
Bureau  was  directed  to  investigate  and  report  "upon 
all  matters  pertaining  to  the  welfare  of  children 
and  child  life."  As  children  under  sixteen  years  of 
age  constitute  about  one-third  of  the  total  population, 
and  as  the  welfare  of  that  one-third  is  intimately 
bound  up  with  the  welfare  of  the  other  two-thirds, 
it  is  obvious  that  its  work  has  been  unlimited. 

The  Bureau  began  by  publishing  bulletins, — the 
first  upon  the  need  of  more  complete  birth  registra- 
tion as  a  foundation  for  all  statistics  of  childhood; 
the  second  upon  the  baby-saving  campaigns  which  are 
being  conducted  by  cities  all  over  the  United  States ; 
the  third  upon  prenatal  care;  and  the  fourth  upon 
the  number  of  children  in  the  United  States,  with 
their  sex,  age,  race,  nativity,  parentage,  and  geo- 
graphic distribution.  Several  other  bulletins,  includ- 
ing one  containing  the  results  of  the  first  field  inves- 


176  W.  B.  WILSON 

tigation  of  infant  mortality  and  one  on  child-labor 
legislation,  followed. 

Infant  mortality  recommended  itself  as  the  subject 
of  the  first  field  investigation,  not  only  because  it  is 
a  subject  which  is  challenging  the  attention  of  the 
entire  civilized  world,  but  because  it  was  practicable 
to  approach  it  by  studying  one  community  of  manage- 
able size  at  a  time,  with  the  staff  and  appropriation 
at  command.  For  various  reasons  Johnstown,  Penn- 
sylvania, was  chosen  as  the  community  to  be  studied. 
Records  of  all  the  babies  there  within  a  year  were 
copied,  a  schedule  was  prepared  with  a  view  to  se- 
curing, not  merely  a  history  of  the  baby's  life,  but  a 
picture  of  the  social,  civic,  and  industrial  conditions 
of  its  family,  and  women  field  investigators  were  sent 
out  to  the  home,  where  they  obtained  histories  of  the 
first  year  of  life  for  1,551  babies  born  in  Johnstown 
during  that  year. 

A  review  of  child-labor  legislation,  containing  a 
summary  and  the  text  of  all  the  laws  regulating  the 
employment  of  children  in  the  fifty-two  political  divi- 
sions of  the  United  States,  was  practically  compiled, 
including  a  study  of  the  methods  of  issuing  work  cer- 
tificates to  children  in  use  in  the  different  States. 
The  employment  certificate  is  a  method  both  of  open- 
ing the  doors  of  industry  to  the  child  and  of  pro- 
tecting his  life,  health,  and  morals  during  his  earliest 
years  at  work.  The  degree  to  which  various  systems 
actually  give  such  protection  is  therefore  one  of  the 
most  significant  questions  connected  with  the  child- 
labor  problem. 

It  is  obvious  that  the  Children's  Bureau  has  as  yet 
made  but  a  small  beginning  toward  meeting  the  press- 


THE  ORIGINAL  BUREAUS  177 

ing  needs  felt  by  Secretary  Wilson,  who  urged  its 
establishment.  Much  of  its  work  during  the  early 
years  was  necessarily  exploratory  in  character  and 
much  time  was  necessarily  devoted  to  securing  a  staff 
and  equipment  and  to  organizing  and  laying  plans  for 
future  work.  It  is  believed,  however,  that  the  work 
of  these  years,  as  well  as  the  vital  importance  and 
wide  scope  of  the  field  assigned  to  the  Children's 
Bureau,  justifies  a  request  for  a  considerable  enlarge- 
ment of  its  staff  and  for  a  considerable  increase  in  its 
appropriation. 

It  was  decided  to  call  the  second  year  of  this 
country's  participation  in  the  war  Children's  Year, 
and  to  set  forth  a  simple  national  program  of  child 
welfare,  because  the  European  experience  plainly 
warned  us  that  civilians  must  promptly  understand 
that  they  have  new  responsibilities  for  a  nation's  chil- 
dren when  its  young  men  have  gone  to  war.  When 
President^Wilson  was  informed  of  the  purpose  of  the 
Children's  Year,  he  wrote  the  following  letter: 

The  White  House, 

Washington,  March  29,  1918. 
My  dear  Mr.  Secretary: 

Next  to  the  duty  of  doing  everything  possible  for  the 
soldiers  at  the  front,  there  would  be,  it  seems  to  me,  no  more 
patriotic  duty  than  that  of  protecting  the  children,  who  con- 
stitute one-third  of  our  population. 

The  success  of  the  efforts  made  in  England  in  behalf  of 
the  children  is  evidenced  by  the  fact  that  the  infant  death 
rate  in  England  for  the  second  year  of  the  war  was  the  lowest 
in  her  history.  Attention  is  now  being  given  to  education  and 
labor  conditions  for  children  by  the  legislatures  of  both 
France  and  England,  showing  that  the  conviction  among  the 
Allies  is  that  the  protection  of  childhood  is  essential  to  win* 
ning  the  war. 


178  W.  B.  WILSON 

I  am  glad  that  the  same  processes  are  being  set  afoot  in 
this  country,  and  I  heartily  approve  the  plan  of  the  Children's 
Bureau  and  the  Council  of  National  Defense  for  making  the 
second  year  of  the  war  one  of  united  activity  on  behalf  of 
children,  and  in  that  sense  a  children's  year. 

I  trust  that  the  year  will  not  only  see  the  goal  reached  of 
saving  100,000  lives  of  infants  and  young  children,  but  that 
the  work  may  so  successfully  develop  as  to  set  up  certain 
irreducible  minimum  standards  for  the  health,  education,  and 
work  of  the  American  child. 

Cordially  and  sincerely  yours, 

(Signed)     WOODBOW  WILSON. 

Hon.  William  B.  Wilson, 
Secretary  of  Labor. 

Considerable  financial  embarrassment  attended  the 
initial  work  of  organizing  the  Department  of  Labor 
by  the  new  Secretary.  The  equipment  and  appro- 
priations of  the  Department  of  Labor  came  over  with 
them;  but  as  their  use  was  limited  to  the  bureaus, 
respectively,  they  were  not  available  for  general  de- 
partmental functions.  For  those  functions  the  Con- 
gress that  created  the  Department  provided  no  equip- 
ment at  all,  nor  did  it  make  any  financial  provision. 
Until  two  months  after  its  creation  the  Department 
was  wholly  dependent  upon  the  generosity  of  the 
Department  of  Commerce  for  departmental  quarters 
and  furniture,  and  for  clerical,  messenger,  and  ele- 
vator service.  Even  the  salaries  of  departmental  offi- 
cers were  not  provided  for.  That  embarrassing  situa- 
tion was  remedied  as  to  salaries  by  act  of  May  1,  1913. 
But  this  act  made  no  provision  for  subordinate  clerks 
or  for  meeting  other  working  expenses  in  the  Office 
of  the  Secretary.  In  those  respects,  therefore,  and  in 
some  others,  the  Department  continued  for  some  time 


THE  ORIGINAL  BUREAUS  179 

in  a  state  of  dependence  upon  the  Department  of 
Commerce. 

One  of  the  first  difficulties  confronting  Secretary 
Wilson  was  the  problem  of  departmental  quarters. 
The  organic  act  permitted  "any  office,  bureau,  or 
branch  of  the  public  service  transferred  to  the  De- 
partment of  Labor"  and  at  that  time  "occupying 
rented  buildings  or  premises,"  to  "still  continue  to" 
occupy  them  "until  other  suitable  quarters"  were 
"provided  for  its  use";  but  no  space  at  all  was 
allowed  for  the  office  of  the  Secretary  and  its  divi- 
sions. Partly  to  meet  this  difficulty,  two  rooms  of 
the  Bureau  of  Immigration  in  the  Willard  Building 
were  set  aside.  But  this  building,  then  occupied  by 
both  the  Department  of  Commerce  and  the  Depart- 
ment of  Labor,  as  it  had  been  before  by  the  Depart- 
ment of  Commerce  and  Labor,  was  already  over- 
crowded. The  Commissioner  General  of  Immigration, 
therefore,  moved  into  extremely  narrow  quarters  in 
order  to  make  room  for  the  Secretary.  It  was  in  such 
crowded  conditions  that  the  Department  began  its 
work. 

This  congestion  continued  until  the  removal,  about 
the  middle  of  October,  of  the  Department  of  Com- 
merce from  the  Willard  Building  to  its  new  building 
at  Nineteenth  Street  and  Pennsylvania  Avenue  N.  W. 
Even  then  the  embarrassment  did  not  end.  Con- 
gress having  assumed  that  the  four  bureaus  of  the 
Department  of  Labor  could  be  afforded  space  in  that 
building,  which  had  been  erected  for  the  accommoda- 
tion of  the  former  Department  of  Commerce  and 
Labor  and  all  its  constituent  parts,  only  $5,000  for 
rent  of  offices  for  the  Office  of  the  Secretary  during 


180  W.  B.  WILSON 

the  remainder  of  the  fiscal  year  ending  June  30,  1914, 
was  appropriated  by  the  act  of  October  22,  1913. 
This  was  not  enough  for  the  emergency. 

Occupancy  of  the  new  building  by  both  Depart- 
ments would  have  interfered  with  plans  of  the  De- 
partment of  Commerce,  which  contemplated  occupy- 
ing the  entire  premises  to  the  exclusion  of  the  De- 
partment of  Labor  and  all  its  bureaus.  Further 
embarrassment  also  arose.  The  leases  which  the  De- 
partment of  Commerce,  as  sole  successor  to  the  De- 
partment of  Commerce  and  Labor,  had  acquired  for 
the  building  in  which  its  executive  offices  and  their 
branches  and  those  of  this  Department  were  quar- 
tered, ran  only  until  October  14,  1913.  There  was 
danger,  therefore,  that  the  Department  of  Labor, 
with  but  $5,000  available  for  rent  for  the  remainder 
of  the  fiscal  year  from  October  15,  1913,  to  June  30, 
1914 — the  amount  appropriated  by  the  act  of  Con- 
gress last  cited — would  be  wholly  without  office  accom- 
modations. 

This  difficulty  was  finally  overcome  by  Secretary 
Wilson  through  a  contract  with  the  owners  of  the 
Willard  Building  supplemented  by  a  concession  from 
the  Department  of  Commerce.  The  former  Depart- 
ment of  Commerce  and  Labor  having  paid  an  annual 
rental  of  $11,830  for  the  Willard  Building,  the  owners 
of  that  building  agreed  to  accept  from  this  Depart- 
ment for  the  remainder  of  the  fiscal  year  (from  the 
end  of  the  lease  to  June  30,  1914),  the  total  amount 
at  the  disposal  of  the  Department  for  rent,  namely, 
$5,000.  Acceptance  of  that  offer,  however,  would  have 
accomplished  little  but  for  a  concession  by  the  De- 
partment of  Commerce,  which  provided  temporary 


THE  ORIGINAL  BUREAUS  181 

quarters  for  one  of  the  bureaus  of  the  Department 
of  Labor — the  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics. 

That  the  Department  of  Labor  was  created  in  the 
interest  of  the  wage  earners  of  the  United  States  is 
expressly  declared  in  the  first  section  of  the  organic 
act,  which  defines  its  purposes  to  be  "to  foster,  pro- 
mote, and  develop  the  welfare  of  the  wage  earners  of 
the  United  States,  to  improve  their  working  condi- 
tions, and  to  advance  their  opportunities  for  profitable 
employment."  This  does  not  imply  special  privi- 
leges, but  the  inference  is  irresistible  that  Congress 
did  intend  to  conserve  their  just  interests  by  means 
of  an  executive  department  especially  devoted  to  their 
welfare. 

Nor  is  there  any  implication  that  the  wage  earners 
in  whose  behalf  this  Department  was  created  consist 
of  such  only  as  are  associated  together  in  labor  unions. 
It  was  created  in  the  interest  of  the  welfare  of  all 
the  wage  earners  of  the  United  States,  whether  organ- 
ized or  unorganized. 

Inasmuch,  however,  as  it  is  ordinarily  only  through 
organization  that  the  many  in  any  class  or  of  any 
interest  can  become  articulate  with  reference  to  their 
common  needs  and  aspirations,  the  Department  of 
Labor  is  usually  under  a  necessity  of  turning  to  the 
labor  organizations  for  definite  and  trustworthy  ad- 
vice on  the  sentiments  of  the  wage-earning  classes 
regarding  their  common  welfare.  Freely  as  confer- 
ences with  unorganized  wage  earners  are  welcomed, 
official  intercourse  with  individuals  as  such  has  prac- 
tical limits  which  organization  alone  can  remove. 
Manifestly,  then,  the  Department  of  Labor  must  in- 
vite the  confidence  and  encourage  the  co-operation 


182  W.  B.  WILSON 

of  responsible  labor  organizations  and  their  accredited 
officers  and  committees  if  it  is  to  subserve  its  pre- 
scribed purpose  through  an  intelligent  and  effective 
administration  of  its  authorized  functions. 

While  the  Department  of  Labor  sustains  friendly 
relations  with  labor  organizations,  as  in  the  interest 
of  all  wage  earners  and  of  the  general  welfare  it 
ought  to  do,  nevertheless  this  attitude  must  not  be 
exclusive.  Similar  relations  with  unorganized  wage 
earners,  and  also  with  employers  and  their  organiza- 
tions to  the  extent  to  which  they  themselves  permit, 
are  likewise  a  duty  of  the  Department. 

The  great  guiding  purpose,  however — the  purpose 
that  should  govern  the  Department  at  every  turn  and 
be  understood  and  acquiesced  in  by  everybody — is  the 
purpose  prescribed  in  terms  by  the  organic  act, 
namely,  promotion  of  the  welfare  of  the  wage  earners 
of  the  United  States. 

In  the  execution  of  that  purpose  the  element  of 
fairness  to  every  interest  is  of  equal  importance. 
Secretary  Wilson  made  fairness  between  wage  earner 
and  wage  earner,  between  employer  and  employer, 
and  between  each  and  the  public  as  a  whole  the  su- 
preme motive  and  purpose  of  the  Department.  The 
act  of  its  creation  is  construed  by  it  not  only  as  a 
law  for  promoting  the  welfare  of  the  wage  earners 
of  the  United  States  by  improving  their  working  con- 
ditions and  advancing  their  opportunities  for  profit- 
able employment,  but  as  a  command  for  doing  so  in 
harmony  with  the  welfare  of  all  legitimate  interests 
by  methods  tending  to  foster  industrial  peace. 

There  has  been  no  deviation  from  these  principles. 
In  no  respect  has  the  justice  of  the  Department's 


THE  ORIGINAL  BUREAUS  183 

position  been  zo  amply  shown  as  in  the  case  of  its 
policies  with  regard  to  the  right  of  wage  earners  to 
organize  and  with  regard  to  the  corollary  right  of 
collective  bargaining.  In  the  past  the  right  of  wage 
earners  to  organize  has  been  conceded  by  some  em- 
ployers, but  vigorously  denied  by  others.  In  the  case 
of  many  very  large  employers  of  labor  the  organiza- 
tion of  trade-unions  on  the  part  of  wage  earners  was 
a  cause  of  dismissal.  It  was  feared  by  employers  who 
opposed  labor  organization  that,  if  such  organizations 
were  permitted  in  their  establishments,  unreasonable 
and  excessive  demands  upon  the  employer  would  fol- 
low. On  the  other  hand,  the  experience  of  the  De- 
partment indicates  that  in  the  past  the  most  disastrous 
and  long-continued  strikes  had  occurred  in  trades  and 
in  plants  where  there  was  virtually  no  organization. 

The  fixed  policy  of  the  Department  has  always  been 
to  acknowledge  the  right  of  both  employers  and  wage 
earners  to  organize  and  to  use  its  influence  against 
abuse  of  organization  on  either  side.  Upon  this  the- 
ory the  Conciliation  Service  of  the  Department  has 
always  operated.  Where  both  sides  to  a  controversy 
have  attained  such  form  of  organization  that  they 
can  send  responsible  delegates  to  confer  with  each 
other,  there  has  always  been  not  only  a  possibility  but 
almost  a  certainty  of  agreement.  On  the  other  hand, 
when  wage  earners  are  unorganized  and  there  is  no 
one  to  whom  authority  to  speak  can  be  delegated,  it  is 
evident  that  they  can  neither  bargain  nor  be  bar- 
gained with.  Almost  insuperable  obstacles  arise  in 
such  cases.  The  absence  of  organization  means  the 
absence  of  a  medium  through  which  the  workers  en 
masse  can  discuss  their  problems  with  their  employers. 


184  W.  B.  WILSON 

The  denial  of  this  organization  is  the  denial  of  the 
only  means  of  peaceable  settlement  they  can  have. 
Whether  or  not  so  intended,  the  result  of  refusal  on 
the  part  of  the  employing  interest  to  recognize  the 
right  of  labor  to  organize  is  to  force  the  development 
of  labor  organizations  of  a  revolutionary  or  even  of 
a  lawless  type. 

The  war  demonstrated  that  American  patriotism 
is  not  restricted  to  any  section  of  the  country,  or  to 
any  class  or  group  of  individuals,  or  to  any  stratum 
of  society.  The  great  need  for  sacrifice  for  the  com- 
mon good  engendered  by  the  war  impelled  both  em- 
ployers and  wage  earners  to  lay  aside  old  prejudices, 
old  suspicions,  and  old  hatreds.  Both  laborer  and 
employer  did  this  in  a  supreme  measure, 


CHAPTER  XVII 
CONCILIATION  WORK 

THE  Department  of  Labor  as  an  executive  depart- 
ment devoted  to  the  just  interests  of  wage  earners 
was  established  as  one  of  the  results  of  general  in- 
dustrial progress.  Owing  to  well-known  develop- 
ments in  production,  the  relation  of  employer  and 
wage  earner  is  no  longer  personal  or  individual. 
Theirs  is  now  usually  a  relationship  between  groups 
of  employers  on  one  side  (such  as  corporation  stock- 
holders) and  groups  of  their  respective  workmen  on 
the  other.  Employers  act  collectively  through  their 
own  chosen  agents — corporation  managers,  factory 
or  mine  superintendents  or  foremen,  labor  brokers, 
or  the  like — who,  in  hiring  laborers,  represent  col- 
lective financial  interests.  It  is  obvious  that  this 
method  of  employment,  generally  necessary  for  suc- 
cess in  modern  industry,  may  give  to  employers  great 
contractual  advantages  over  wage  earners.  Unless 
wage  earners  also  act  collectively  through  their  own 
agents,  they  are  often  at  a  practical  disadvantage. 

Employers  who  act  collectively  through  their  agents 
in  hiring  wage  earners  are  often  averse  to  dealing 
with  the  agents  of  wage  earners  who  collectively  offer 
their  services.  They  desire  to  contract  with  wage 
earners  individually.  It  is  upon  this  point  that  labor 
disputes  frequently  spring  up  and  become  acute. 

In  most  instances  in  which  employers  accord  to 
workmen  practical  recognition  of  the  right  of  col- 

185 


186  W.  B.  WILSON 

lective  bargaining  which  they  themselves  exercise,  fair 
relations  are  maintained.  Even  under  such  condi- 
tions, it  is  true,  unhappy  disputes  arise.  Whether  the 
bargaining  be  collective  or  individual,  a  conflict  of 
interests  may  tempt  either  party  to  make  exactions 
which  the  other  cannot  concede.  If  employers  yielded 
to  every  demand  of  wage  earners,  their  business  would 
be  wrecked;  if  wage  earners  always  accepted  the 
terms  that  employers  offer,  they  would  suffer  great 
injustice. 

In  any  circumstances,  differences  must  be  expected 
to  arise.  In  such  cases  the  Department  of  Labor, 
through  public  agents  experienced  in  controversies  of 
like  character,  might  possibly  find  a  common  ground 
for  agreement  which  the  disputants,  in  their  eagerness 
for  advantage  or  in  the  heat  of  their  controversy,  had 
overlooked.  Difficulties  of  adjustment  would,  of 
course,  be  greatly  increased  if  either  party  refused 
to  deal  or  bargain  with  the  other.  But  the  Depart- 
ment of  Labor,  from  growing  experience  and  accumu- 
lated knowledge  and  skill,  might  learn  how,  even  in 
these  more  difficult  cases,  to  appeal  with  pacifying 
and  prosperity-promoting  effect,  to  the  good  citizen- 
ship and  the  wise  self-interest  of  both  parties.  And, 
though  no  common  ground  for  compromise  were  dis- 
covered, the  Department  of  Labor  might  still  be  able 
to  stimulate  such  conciliatory  spirit  as  might  exist  on 
both  sides,  sufficiently  to  bring  them,  each  none  the 
less  convinced  of  the  righteousness  of  his  own  cause, 
to  a  manly  agreement  to  submit  their  unreconciled 
differences  to  arbitration. 

In  any  of  these  three  ways  the  welfare  of  wage 
earners  could  be  fostered  while  the  prosperity  of 


CONCILIATION  WORK  187 

employers  and  the  peace  and  good  order  of  society 
at  large  were  conserved.  Amicable  settlements  be- 
tween the  parties  themselves  without  mediation  are 
manifestly  first  in  the  order  of  preference.  Media- 
tion comes  next.  Arbitration  third.  But  any  one  ,of 
the  three  is  preferable  to  strikes  or  lockouts. 

In  his  experience  in  adjusting  labor  disputes  Secre- 
tary Wilson  has  demonstrated  that  they  can  be  set- 
tled to  the  profit  of  all  interests  whenever  both  sides 
are  fairly  disposed,  though  they  may  have  been  widely 
separated  in  their  negotiations  at  the  start.  These 
demonstrations  have  been  made  under  greater  em- 
barrassment than  the  Department  need  be  hampered 
with  in  the  future.  Properly  equipped,  it  should  be 
able  to  make  mediation  progressively  popular  with 
both  the  employing  and  the  wage-earning  interest 
of  the  country. 

The  possibilities  of  public  service  by  such  a  De- 
partment are  not  limited,  however,  to  settling  labor 
disputes.  Besides  this  work  and  the  administration  of 
the  immigration  and  naturalization  laws  and  of  statis- 
tical investigations  of  labor  problems  and  the  prob- 
lems of  child  life,  much  may  be  done  in  the  way  of 
modifying  industrial  conditions  that  provoke  distress- 
ing controversies.  With  the  sympathetic  co-operation 
of  Congress,  the  Department  of  Labor  can  effectively 
serve  industrial  interests,  not  only  without  injury  to 
any,  but  with  benefit  to  all. 

Secretary  Wilson  was  empowered  to  mediate  in 
labor  disputes,  and  in  his  discretion  to  appoint  com- 
missioners of  conciliation,  his  authority  coming  from 
Section  8  of  the  organic  act  of  the  Department,  the 
precise  terms  of  which  in  this  respect  are  as  follows : 


188  W.  B.  WILSON 

"That  the  Secretary  of  Labor  shall  have  power  to 
act  as  mediator  and  to  appoint  commissioners  of  con- 
ciliation in  labor  disputes  whenever  in  his  judgment 
the  interests  of  industrial  peace  may  require  it  to  be 
done." 

Of  all  the  functions  of  the  Department  of  Labor 
which  it  is  yet  possible  to  administer,  this  one  may  be 
reasonably  regarded  as  the  most  important.  Sug- 
gesting with  reference  to  labor  disputes  a  development 
of  diplomatic  duties  in  the  Department  of  Labor  anal- 
ogous to  those  in  the  Department  of  State  with  refer- 
ence to  international  disputes,  it  points  to  a  Federal 
administrative  system  for  promoting  and  fostering 
industrial  peace;  not  a  peace  of  the  Warsaw  order, 
but  one  of  mutual  benefit  and  good  will. 

Primarily  the  Department  of  Labor  must  conserve 
in  industrial  disputes  the  interests  of  the  wage  earn- 
ers of  the  United  States.  Not  only  do  wage  earners 
constitute  in  number  more  than  a  third  of  our  total 
population,  but  in  financial  respects  also  their  ag- 
gregate interests  are  vast.  It  is  doubtful  if  any  voca- 
tional interests  represented  in  our  governmental  sys- 
tem exceed  in  volume  or  public  importance  those  of 
the  wage  earners  of  the  United  States. 

But  though  the  Department  of  Labor  represents 
primarily  the  wage  earning  interests  in  labor  dis- 
putes, its  ideal  is  to  make  its  representation  similar 
in  character  to  that  of  the  Department  of  State,  which, 
while  representing  the  interests  of  this  country  in 
disputes  between  it  and  other  countries,  does  so  with 
fairness  toward  all  countries.  Accordingly,  the  policy 
of  the  Department  of  Labor,  though  it  executes  its 
mediation  and  conciliation  functions  as  the  govern- 


CONCILIATION  WORK  189 

mental  representative  of  wage-earning  interests,  is  to 
do  so  without  partisanship  or  prejudice  and  with 
fairness  to  every  interest  concerned. 

The  powers  thus  conferred  upon  the  Secretary  of 
Labor  must  for  the  most  part  be  administered  through 
the  commissioners  of  conciliation  whom  he  is  author- 
ized to  appoint.  But  no  appropriation  for  that  pur- 
pose was  made  by  Congress  until  October  22,  1913, 
when  a  deficiency  bill  for  the  fiscal  year  1913  ap- 
propriated the  sum  of  $5,000.  This  appropriation, 
however,  was  limited  in  its  disbursement  to  the  ex- 
penses of  the  commissioners.  Nothing  for  their  com- 
pensation was  appropriated  until  April  6,  1914.  The 
urgent  deficiency  bill  of  that  date  appropriated  the 
further  sum  of  $20,000  for  the  fiscal  year  1914,  au- 
thorizing the  disbursement  of  this  amount  for  compen- 
sation as  well  as  for  expenses.  The  total  appropria- 
tion, therefore,  for  the  mediation  and  conciliation 
service  of  the  Department  from  its  organization  to  the 
close  of  its  second  fiscal  year  was  only  $25,000,  of 
which  $5,000  was  available  for  commissioners'  ex- 
penses alone  and  $20,000  for  their  compensation  or 
expenses  as  might  be  needed. 

Until  the  second  of  these  appropriations — thirteen 
months  after  the  creation  of  the  Department  and 
within  three  of  the  close  of  its  second  fiscal  year — 
only  employees  of  the  Government  detailed  from  their 
regular  duties  could  be  utilized  for  conciliation  pur- 
poses, which  was  a  serious  handicap.  A  subsequent 
appropriation  of  $50,000  was  available  only  for  the 
fiscal  year  1915,  for  the  purpose  of  enabling  the  Sec- 
retary to  appoint  commissioners  of  conciliation  and 


190  W.  B.  WILSON 

an  executive  clerk,  and  to  meet  their  traveling  ex- 
penses. 

Pursuant  to  this  authority  an  executive  clerk  was 
appointed,  who,  under  the  direction  of  the  Secretary 
of  Labor,  systematized  and  superintended  the  media- 
tion and  conciliation  work  of  the  Office  of  the  Sec- 
retary as  completely  as  the  appropriation  for  this 
phase  of  that  service  and  the  necessary  limitations  of 
a  clerical  function  permitted. 

The  experience  of  Secretary  Wilson  in  mediation 
work  is  most  confirmatory  of  his  suggestions  with 
reference  to  collective  bargaining  that  I  have  above 
outlined.  In  connection  herewith  he  once  said  to  me : 

"Large  employers  are  usually  incorporated  com- 
panies, with  many  stockholders  of  diversified  indus- 
trial connections  and  with  boards  of  directors  having 
intercorporate  affiliations.  Often  they  are  fortified 
with  public  franchises  or  other  special  privileges,  and 
their  superintendents  and  foremen — with  whom  alone 
wage  earners  have  personal  relations — are  naturally 
sensitive  to  the  industrial  powers  back  of  them.  An 
individual  wage  worker  is  weak  indeed,  as  a  bargainer 
with  such  employers.  He  must  take  what  they  offer 
or  go  without  employment;  and  going  long  without 
employment  means  to  the  wage  worker  what  hopeless 
bankruptcy  means  to  the  business  man,  except  that  it 
is  immeasurably  worse. 

"We  have  but  to  visualize  familiar  facts  in  order 
to  see  what  individual  bargaining  by  wage  workers 
for  employment  really  is ;  we  may  thus  see  it  as  wage 
workers  not  only  see  it,  but  as  they  often  harshly  feel 
it.  Consider  the  picture.  A  solitary  wage  worker 
faces  a  foreman  whom  he  asks  for  work  to  do.  Back 


CONCILIATION  WORK  191 

of  him  a  shadowy  mass  of  individual  bargainers  eager 
for  the  job.  Fronting  him  the  foreman  upon  whose 
word  his  livelihood  depends.  Over  the  foreman  a 
superintendent  whom  the  foreman  must  satisfy.  Ris- 
ing above  both,  rank  upon  rank,  managers,  directors, 
stockholders,  all  to  be  satisfied  by  superintendents 
and  foremen,  and  each  rank  subservient  to  the  rank 
above  it.  The  interests  of  all  but  the  solitary  bar- 
gainer for  a  job  are  knitted  together  into  a  collective 
self-interest  which  instinctively  dictates  for  wages  the 
least  that  the  labor  market  will  allow — a  market  tense 
with  competition  for  work,  but  slack  in  competition 
for  workers.  Even  this  is  not  all.  For  that  collective 
interest  is  permeated  with  similar  ones  through  inter- 
locked directorates  and  interlaced  stockholding,  vital- 
ized it  may  be  with  gentlemen's  agreements  and  by 
business  coercion  or  fear  of  it.  At  the  outer  edge  of 
all  a  lone  wage  worker  bargains  for  work;  bargains 
in  a  glutted  labor  market ;  bargains  individually ! 

"Before  those  gigantic  collectivities  of  employing 
interests  a  wage  worker  bargaining  individually  for 
work  is  as  impotent  and  negligible  as  a  mediaeval 
peasant  kneeling  before  the  council  of  a  king.  Only 
if  employment  opportunities  were  unlimited  could 
wage  earners  bargain  individually  with  employment 
interests  so  unified.  But,  in  reality,  employment  op- 
portunities are  limited — very  narrowly  limited.  The 
fact  may  be  abnormal,  but  fact  it  is,  that  although  the 
need  for  labor  products  is  constantly  in  excess  of  their 
supply,  yet  opportunities  for  producing  them  are 
somehow  so  few  that  work  is  seldom  plentiful.  Never, 
one  may  fairly  say,  is  opportunity  for  work  so  far 


192  W.  B.  WILSON 

in  excess  of  persons  needing  work  as  to  give  them 
more  than  a  slight  and  very  temporary  advantage  in 
bargaining,  or  even  to  place  them  for  long  on  an  even 
footing.  While  this  unbalanced  condition  lasts  the 
interests  of  wholesale  social  life  demand  that  wage 
earners  be  freely  conceded  the  right  in  bargaining 
for  employment,  to  do  so  collectively. ' ' 

Those  considerations  gave  rise  logically  to  consid- 
erations relative  to  the  organization  of  wage-earning 
labor.  The  interests  of  the  wage  earners  of  the 
United  States,  regardless  of  whether  they  are  organ- 
ized or  not,  are  represented  by  the  Department  of 
Labor.  It  makes  no  distinction  between  the  two.  Yet 
its  experience  tends  to  demonstrate  the  importance  of 
labor  organization,  not  alone  to  wage  earners,  but 
also  to  the  public  interests  as  a  whole. 

For  collective  bargaining  purposes  alone  organiza- 
tion is  indispensable.  Without  it  the  economic  inde- 
pendence of  wage  earners  would  be  impossible  under 
existing  industrial  conditions,  because  workers  can- 
not bargain  collectively  unless  they  are  so  organized 
as  to  enable  them  to  bargain  through  representatives 
over  whom  employers  can  have  no  coercive  control. 

Through  their  organizations  the  standards  of  citi- 
zenship have  been  raised  among  wage  workers. 
Through  them  the  purchasing  power  of  wage  workers 
has  been  increased,  making  more  profitable  customers 
at  the  stores  for  the  products  of  every  vocation. 
Through  them  this  purchasing  power  may  be  still 
further  increased  with  injury  to  no  legitimate  in- 
terest, but  to  the  benefit  of  all.  While  striving  for 
foreign  markets  we  should  not  overlook  the  market 


CONCILIATION  WORK  193 

we  have  at  home  in  the  wage-working  group,  which 
constitutes  more  than  half  our  population.  Low 
wages  lessen  the  purchasing  power  of  that  market; 
high  prices  increase  it.  This  is  no  circle  of  reasoning 
of  which  it  may  be  said  that  what  the  wage  worker 
gets  in  higher  wages  he  loses  in  higher  prices.  High 
wages  tend  to  raise  the  level  of  pay  for  all  industry, 
not  at  its  own  expense,  but  at  the  expense  of  the  un- 
earned profits  of  special  privileges.  The  true  sign  of 
general  prosperity  is  high  wages. 

Industrial  peace,  also,  is  conserved  through  estab- 
lished and  fairly  recognized  labor  organization.  That 
this  is  so  the  mediation  work  of  the  Department  goes 
to  prove.  In  the  cases  in  which  labor  organizations 
have  been  recognized  by  employers,  mediation  upon 
just  terms  has  been  much  more  easily  affected  than  in 
the  cases  in  which  employers,  though  acting  collec- 
tively themselves,  have  refused  to  accord  rights  of  col- 
lective action  to  the  wage  workers  from  whom  their 
employees  are  drawn. 

The  more  cordially  the  principle  of  labor  organiza- 
tion and  the  policy  of  collective  bargaining  between 
employers  and  wage  workers  are  sustained  by  public 
opinion,  even  in  opposition  to  the  hostile  attitude  of 
what  is  happily  a  diminishing  number  of  employers, 
the  more  effective  for  the  general  good  will  the  medi- 
ation work  of  this  Department  become. 

In  spite  of  the  difficulties  that  are  always  unavoid- 
able at  the  start  in  administering  new  Federal  func- 
tions of  any  sort,  and  notwithstanding  the  additions 
to  these  difficulties  in  the  present  case  from  delayed 
and  insufficient  appropriations,  remarkable  success 


194  W.  B.  WILSON 

attended  the  mediation  and  conciliation  work  from 
the  beginning.  By  June  30,  1914,  the  close  of  the 
second  fiscal  year,  being  only  sixteen  months  after  the 
creation  of  the  Department,  the  work  had  already 
made  considerable  progress. 


CHAPTER  XVIII 
PREPARING  FOR  WAR 

IMMEDIATELY  after  the  severance  of  diplomatic  re- 
lations between  our  Government  and  that  of  Germany, 
February  3,  1917,  Secretary  Wilson  proceeded  to 
adapt  all  its  appropriate  facilities  to  war  service. 
When  on  April  6,  1917,  the  issue  of  war  was  formally 
joined  between  the  two  countries,  its  organization 
had  been  so  far  adapted  to  this  work  as  to  enable  it 
to  assist  other  branches  of  the  Government,  and  con- 
tractors under  them,  with  growing  efficiency  and  ef- 
fect. Some  of  the  functions  so  utilized  were  dis- 
tributed among  the  bureaus  for  execution  by  them 
under  the  Secretary's  direction  and  supervision. 
Others  were  lodged  in  the  Office  of  the  Secretary. 

Among  the  bureau  activities  in  connection  with  war 
work  were  those  of  the  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics, 
which  gathered  facts  regarding  war  experiences 
abroad.  The  Bureau  of  Immigration,  besides  adapt- 
ing its  regular  functions  to  unusual  administrative 
activities  caused  by  war  conditions,  assisted  in  the 
internment  of  enemy  aliens  unlawfully  in  the  country, 
but  not  technically  prisoners  of  war;  and  through 
that  bureau's  Division  of  Information  the  Secretary 
extended  the  United  States  Employment  Service  of 
the  Department  to  deal  with  war  necessities  on  the  in- 
dustrial side.  The  Children's  Bureau  undertook  to 
conserve  during  the  war  those  standards  of  life  and 
labor,  affecting  children  and  mothers,  which  had  been 

195 


196  W.  B.  WILSON 

established  before  the  war,  and  to  promote  after-war 
protection  for  both.  The  Bureau  of  Naturalization, 
in  addition  to  extra  work  imposed  by  an  unprec- 
edented number  of  applications  for  naturalization 
induced  by  war  conditions,  gave  attention  to  securing 
naturalization  rights  to  unnaturalized  declarants  who 
entered  the  military  service  of  the  country. 

Through  the  office  of  the  Secretary  the  industrial 
relations  of  workingmen  to  the  war  were  administered 
by  means  of  the  United  States  Employment  Service 
under  the  general  powers  of  the  Department  to  con- 
serve the  interests  of  wage  earners,  and  by  means  of 
the  Division  of  Conciliation  under  the  specific  power 
of  the  Secretary  to  act  as  mediator  in  labor  disputes. 

Mediation  of  labor  disputes  calling  for  Govern- 
ment mediation  increased  suddenly  and  enormously 
with  the  beginning  of  the  war.  A  majority  of  the 
employers  and  employees  involved  in  industrial  con- 
troversies evinced  a  keen  desire  to  secure  the  good 
offices  of  the  Department  of  Labor  through  its  con- 
ciliators, and  to  take  advantage  of  the  machinery 
created  under  that  section  of  the  organic  law  of  the 
Department,  the  purpose  of  which  in  this  field  of  its 
activities  had  been  the  fostering  of  industrial  peace 
on  a  basis  of  industrial  justice.  During  the  four 
years'  existence  of  the  Division  of  Conciliation,  a 
method  was  developed  for  assisting  in  the  quick 
adjustment  of  such  disputes.  It  had  been  demon- 
strated that  the  intervention  of  an  impartial  third 
party  in  the  person  of  a  conciliator  by  the  Depart- 
ment invariably  expedited  the  settlement  of  a  dispute 
which  had  culminated  in  a  strike  or  lockout.  In  a 
large  number  of  instances  the  conciliators  were  able 


PREPARING  FOR  WAR  197 

not  only  to  bring  about  agreement  in  cases  of  existing 
difference — often  arising  from  misunderstanding — but 
to  avert  the  threatened  strike  altogether. 

Requests  for  conciliators  came  to  the  Secretary 
from  governmental  agencies  as  well  as  from  unofficial 
employers  and  employees.  These  applications  in- 
creased fourfold  in  an  amazingly  brief  period  follow- 
ing the  declaration  of  war.  The  encouraging  ele- 
ment developed  in  almost  all  these  controversies  was 
the  sincere  desire  evidenced  on  all  sides  not  to  pro- 
ceed to  such  extremes  as  would  result  in  an  embar- 
rassment to  the  Government.  The  Department's  rep- 
resentatives fostered  this  spirit  to  the  utmost,  and 
thus  were  able  to  render  vital  services  at  a  critical 
time. 

The  excellent  work  of  the  conciliators  in  this  re- 
spect stimulated  requests  for  the  good  offices  of  the 
Secretary  in  constantly  increasing  numbers.  It  was 
not  unusual  to  receive  separate  appeals  from  the  em- 
ployers and  employees  at  the  same  plant  or  industry, 
nor  was  it  at  all  uncommon  for  the  Department  to  re- 
ceive a  joint  request  to  assign  a  representative  to 
settle  the  dispute.  Many  of  these  difficulties,  a  con- 
siderable number  of  which  developed  into  strikes 
while  others  were  "impending,"  caused  the  deepest 
concern  to  the  Government  and  to  the  country  at 
large.  The  efforts  of  the  Department — always  directed 
toward  the  adjustment  of  disputes  without  stoppage 
of  work — thus  increased  in  necessity,  value,  and  im- 
portance. The  experience  gained  by  Secretary  Wil- 
son in  all  kinds  of  trade  disputes  during  the  preceding 
four  years  proved  of  inestimable  usefulness  at  this 
juncture. 


198  W.  B.  WILSON 

In  the  hundreds  of  cases  handled  by  the  Secretary 
visible  success  did  not  always  crown  the  efforts  at  ad- 
justment. But  even  in  such  cases  the  value  of  the 
Department  was  made  clear  to  all  concerned,  largely 
by  the  removal  of  misapprehensions — hitherto  held  in 
certain  quarters — regarding  the  influence  and  the 
neutrality  of  the  Department  in  labor  matters.  It 
was  the  policy  of  Secretary  Wilson  not  to  endeavor 
to  impose  his  viewpoint  upon  either  the  worker  or  the 
management  in  any  dispute  that  might  arise,  but 
rather  to  find  some  basis  mutually  acceptable  even 
though  it  might  not  be  mutually  satisfactory.  In 
other  words,  the  work  of  mediation  is  not  a  judicial 
work;  it  is  not  a  judicial  function;  it  is  not  to  hear 
both  sides  and  then  determine  the  rights  and  wrongs 
of  the  situation,  or  to  pass  judgment  and  then  enforce 
its  decision.  The  work  is  diplomatic  rather  than 
judicial,  and  it  is  in  that  spirit  the  problems  of  con- 
ciliation in  labor  controversies  are  approached.  No 
man  in  the  nation  understood  this  underlying  prin- 
ciple as  well  as  did  Secretary  Wilson. 

In  line  with  this  purpose  the  Secretary  often  was 
able  to  remove  the  barriers  which  prevented  employ- 
ers and  employees  meeting  on  common  ground.  Thus 
the  way  was  paved  for  more  friendly  relations  and  a 
broader  grasp  of  their  respective  rights.  The  fact 
is  brought  home  that  there  is  another  side,  and  even 
in  the  absence  of  immediate  success  the  seed  is  sown 
which  bears  fruit  in  some  modification  of  working 
conditions  with  a  greater  consideration  for  the  human 
rights  of  employees  or  a  better  understanding  of 
problems  which  harass  employers.  Labor  has  dis- 
covered that  it  has  a  standing  in  the  Government  ma- 


PREPARING  FOR  WAR  199 

chinery  of  its  country  whenever  its  demands  are 
based  on  its  industrial  and  constitutional  rights.  Em- 
ployers, on  the  other  hand,  have  found  in  the  De- 
partment a  defender  against  unreasonable  exaction. 

It  would  be  impossible  to  estimate  in  money  value 
what  the  services  of  Secretary  Wilson  saved  to  the 
country  during  the  war.  The  tremendous  aggregate 
of  the  contracts  for  foodstuffs,  clothing,  material,  and 
general  equipment  of  the  Army  and  Navy  in  connec- 
tion with  further  contracts  for  the  construction  of 
buildings  for  the  military  and  naval  branches  and  for 
additional  buildings  for  other  Federal  departments, 
together  with  the  problems  presented  by  the  transpor- 
tation of  coal,  ore,  lumber,  and  many  forms  of  raw 
material,  required  the  employment  of  a  vast  army  of 
skilled  and  unskilled  labor.  The  necessities  of  the 
Government  were  imperative  that  all  supplies  should 
be  provided  speedily  and  that  the  construction  work 
incident  to  the  public  needs  at  this  period  should  be 
expedited. 

With  Government  activities  in  the  construction  of 
ships  and  with  the  unprecedented  demand  upon  pro- 
ductive agencies  for  the  materials  needed  in  the  work, 
it  became  of  vital  importance  that  the  Secretary  of 
Labor  exert  special  efforts  to  adjust  all  controversies 
that  might  hinder  or  retard  the  Government.  In  a 
majority  of  the  cases  presented  for  mediation  a  fine 
spirit  of  co-operation  was  evinced  by  both  employers 
and  employees.  Notwithstanding  the  limited  force  of 
conciliators  available,  the  experience  gained  in  their 
previous  handling  of  negotiations  as  representatives 
of  the  Department  proved  of  immense  utility  to  the 
plans  of  the  General  Government, 


200  W.  B.  WILSON 

The  extraordinary  demand  for  "man  power,"  on 
the  industrial  as  distinguished  from  the  military  side 
of  war  preparation,  was  responded  to  by  Secretary 
Wilson  through  the  United  States  Employment  Ser- 
vice as  soon  as  the  demand  arose.  This  Service  was 
the  successor  of  the  old  Division  of  Information  of 
the  Immigration  Service — separated  in  January,  1918. 
Much  of  this  demand  was  found  to  have  been  in- 
fluenced more  by  eagerness  for  labor  at  low  or  inade- 
quate wages  relatively  to  the  sharp  rise  in  living  ex- 
penses than  by  general  labor  shortage.  But  in  some 
places,  especially  in  the  neighborhoods  of  munition 
establishments  which  had  been  serving  European  war 
demands  at  enormous  profits,  there  was  a  genuine 
scarcity  of  labor  for  less  profitable  forms  of  produc- 
tion. On  the  whole,  the  problem  at  first  probably 
was  less  a  problem  of  labor  scarcity  than  of  imperfect 
distribution. 

Shortly  after  the  declaration  that  a  state  of  war  ex- 
isted between  the  United  States  and  Germany  a  call 
came  to  this  Department  from  the  United  States 
Shipping  Board  to  locate  and  report  on  the  number 
of  ship  carpenters,  calkers,  and  other  skilled  ship 
workers  in  the  United  States  available  for  immediate 
duty.  Telegraphic  instructions  were  sent  at  once  to 
the  offices  of  the  United  States  Employment  Service 
to  list  all  experienced  ship  workers  in  their  respective 
zones,  and  to  that  end  to  ask  the  co-operation  of  all 
newspapers  and  labor  organizations  in  making  known 
the  fact  that  such  information  was  desired.  Within 
ten  days  a  list  of  approximately  19,000  skilled  me- 
chanics ready  to  respond  to  the  call  of  the  Govern- 
ment or  firms  engaged  in  shipbuilding  under  contract 


PREPARING  FOR  WAR  201 

with  the  Government  was  filed  in  the  Division  of  In- 
formation. The  trades-unions  in  which  shipbuilding 
mechanics  held  membership  at  once  prepared  registers 
of  available  workmen  and  they  continued  to  keep  such 
registers  available,  notwithstanding  the  fact  that  for 
several  months  such  workmen  were  not  called  for. 
Many  construction  difficulties  interfered  and  some 
shipyards  had  to  be  set  up  entire. 

When  the  President  called  upon  tillers  of  the  soil 
to  extend  their  planted  areas,  favorable  responses 
came  plentifully  from  every  State.  They  were  ac- 
companied, however,  by  insistent  appeals  for  farm 
help.  To  obtain  this  help  many  expedients  were  sug- 
gested. Volunteers  offered  advice  and  assistance, 
formulated  plans,  and  projected  organizations.  Some 
of  the  many  schemes  seemed  well  adapted  to  the 
emergency;  others,  doubtless  as  well  intended,  were 
less  encouraging.  Of  those  proposed  most  were  de- 
ferred as  premature  or  abandoned  as  inappropriate  or 
ineffective.  Out  of  the  confusion  many  extravagant 
notions  got  currency.  There  were  fears,  for  instance, 
that  the  supply  of  adult  farm  workers  would  be  de- 
pleted beyond  remedy  by  the  war,  and  suggestions  for 
employing  boys  were  apparently  on  the  way  of  pop- 
ular approval.  Short  school  terms  were  suggested, 
even  no  school  at  all,  in  order  that  children  might  be 
released  from  study  to  work  on  farms  and  in  facto- 
ries. This  hysteria  seemed  for  a  time  to  threaten  com- 
plete abandonment  of  the  orderly  processes  of  educa- 
tion, of  efforts  at  vocational  guidance,  and  of  regula- 
tion of  child  labor  with  reference  to  working  age, 
dangerous  employments,  and  hours  of  work.  It  was 
in  those  circumstances  that  Secretary  Wilson — at  the 


202  .W.  B.  WILSON 

advice  of  William  E.  Hall  and  Nathan  G.  Smyth 
organized  the  United  States  Boys'  Working  Reserve. 
By  fixing  the  minimum  age  limit  for  membership  in 
the  Reserve  at  sixteen  years  the  Secretary  discour- 
aged inconsiderate  agitations  for  relaxing  the  estab- 
lished standards  of  child  life.  Only  such  boys  as  were 
over  school  age  were  put  to  work  by  the  Reserve  or 
even  accepted  for  membership. 

Through  this  organization,  making  use  of  the  ex- 
perience of  our  war  allies  with  reference  to  schooling 
requirements  and  child  labor,  the  Department  re- 
cruited a  large  body  of  boys  of  sufficient  age  and 
strength  to  be  put  with  safety  at  systematic  work.  By 
having  this  body  in  readiness  for  seasonable  and  other 
emergent  employment  a  tendency  to  demand  mobili- 
zation of  young  children  for  industrial  service  in  con- 
nection with  the  war  was  checked. 

In  the  summer  of  1916  information  concerning  the 
destitute  and  dependent  circumstances  of  certain 
refugees  arriving  in  this  country  from  Mexico  was 
brought  to  the  attention  of  Secretary  Wilson.  Notice 
was  thereupon  given  to  all  officers  of  the  Immigration 
and  Employment  Services  throughout  the  United 
States  to  communicate  with  the  inspectors  in  charge 
at  Galveston,  Texas,  and  Los  Angeles,  California,  with 
respect  to  unfilled  opportunities  for  employment  in 
their  respective  zones,  especially  those  in  which  the 
employer  expressed  a  willingness  to  advance  trans- 
portation. This  action  was  taken  with  a  view  of  allevi- 
ating the  conditions  of  the  refugees  by  directing  them 
to  places  of  profitable  employment.  The  records  show 
that  the  employment  officers  of  the  Department  in 
widely  separated  parts  of  tjie  country  entered  heartily 


PREPARING  FOR  WAR  203 

into  the  work  of  securing  opportunities  for  employ- 
ment for  these  unfortunate  persons,  many  employers 
agreeing  to  advance  transportation.  On  October  25, 
1916,  when  a  final  report  on  the  subject  was  received 
from  the  Department's  representative  at  Galveston, 
Texas,  all  save  three  of  the  refugees  who  had  ex- 
pressed a  desire  to  secure  employment  were  engaged 
permanently  in  gainful  occupations.  On  account  of 
age  or  physical  disability  the  three  remaining  un- 
employed were  unable  to  accept  the  work  offered 
them. 

The  activities  of  the  United  States  Employment 
Service  on  February  1,  1917,  embraced  a  much 
broader  scope  and  presented  a  more  animated  ap- 
pearance than  had  been  the  case  for  the  same  month 
in  previous  years.  At  this  period  the  normal  work 
of  the  service  had  been  greatly  stimulated  by  de- 
mands for  skilled  mechanics  in  munition  factories  as 
well  as  for  navy  yards  and  arsenals. 

At  this  time,  too,  the  members  of  the  National 
Guard  who  had  been  on  duty  on  the  Mexican  border 
were  being  returned  to  their  homes  and  mustered  out 
of  the  Federal  Service.  For  the  purpose  of  securing 
employment  for  such  members  of  the  guard  as  had  no 
position  awaiting  them,  instructions  were  issued  to 
all  field  officers  of  the  United  States  Employment 
Service  to  take  the  matter  up  with  the  military  au- 
thorities and  other  public  officials  within  their  re- 
spective zones  with  the  view  of  rendering  all  assist- 
ance in  the  power  of  the  Employment  Service  to  ac- 
complish that  result.  Instructions  were  given  in  con- 
nection with  the  foregoing  also  to  render  all  possible 
aid  in  securing  employment  for  wage  earners  in  the 


204  W.  B.  WILSON 

families  of  the  guardsmen  who  were  still  on  duty  on 
the  Mexican  border.  With  the  idea  of  co-operating 
with  the  War  Department  in  securing  information  as 
to  the  date  when  guardsmen  would  be  returned  to 
their  respective  homes,  a  representative  of  the  De- 
partment was  designated  to  give  personal  attention 
to  this  matter  and  to  take  charge  of  the  important 
task  of  securing  employment  for  all. 

It  was  the  privilege  of  the  Bureau  of  Immigration, 
working  under  the  direction  of  Secretary  Wilson,  to 
take  the  first  step  in  actually  carrying  out  the  will  of 
the  country  in  joining  in  the  battle  for  democracy 
against  autocracy.  When  it  became  evident  that  Con- 
gress would  declare  a  state  of  war  to  exist,  the  Bureau 
was  directed  by  the  Secretary  to  arrange  for  assum- 
ing custody  of  the  officers  and  crews  of  all  the  Ger- 
man ships  lying  in  the  harbors  of  the  mainland  of 
the  United  States,  Honolulu,  and  Porto  Rico,  and  to 
lay  plans  for  the  co-operation  of  other  interested  de- 
partments which  would  insure  the  taking  of  this  first 
step  promptly  when  the  time  came  and  without  hitch 
or  friction.  After  consultation  with  the  several  in- 
terested departments,  instructions  were  issued  to  the 
officers  in  charge  at  the  various  ports  where  vessels 
of  Germany  were  anchored  which  resulted  in  having 
all  the  men  on  duty  and  the  boarding  boats  in  readi- 
ness to  proceed  at  a  moment 's  notice.  Certain  officers 
of  the  Bureau  remained  on  duty  with  the  Secretary 
and  his  staff  of  assistants  during  the  night  of  April 
4,  awaiting  word  from  the  Capitol  as  to  the  con- 
templated action  of  Congress. 

At  3 :14  A.  M.,  April  5,  the  message  came  that  Con- 
gress had  declared  a  state  of  war  to  exist.  At  3:15 


PREPARING  FOR  WAR  205 

o'clock  the  prearranged  message  reading  "Proceed 
instantly,  Wilson,"  was  cabled ,and  telegraphed  to  the 
appropriate  ports ;  and  the  next  instant  the  Secretary 
of  the  Treasury  was  informed  over  an  open  telephone 
wire  that  such  message  had  gone,  whereupon  a  similar 
message  from  him  to  the  collectors  of  customs,  direct- 
ing them  to  take  charge  of  the  vessels  from  which  the 
immigration  officers  would  remove  the  German  officers 
and  crews,  was  likewise  dispatched.  The  removal 
of  the  men  from  the  ships  immediately  ensued,  and 
this  was  accomplished  promptly  and  without  any  ac- 
cident or  untoward  incident,  instructions  previously 
issued  having  contemplated  that  all  should  be  treated 
with  every  kindness  and  courtesy.  This  merely  in- 
augurated the  enormous  task  that  fell  to  the  Bureau 's 
lot,  for  of  course  arrangements  had  to  be  perfected 
and  carried  out  for  the  internment  of  all  the  alien 
enemies  taken  from  the  ships.  These  officers  and  crews 
were  not  regarded  as  in  any  sense  prisoners  of 
war,  but  simply  as  aliens  who  had  not  been  admitted 
to  the  United  States  under  the  immigration  law,  and 
who,  in  addition,  had  suddenly  become  enemies  of  this 
country  and  for  whose  care  and  safety  proper  pro- 
vision had  to  be  made.  As  rapidly  as  possible  they 
were  assembled  in  the  available  places  best  suited  to 
their  internment. 

This  preliminary  work  with  respect  to  alien  enemies 
was  followed  by  the  consideration,  investigation,  and 
disposal  of  numerous  applications  for  permission  to 
enter  and  applications  for  parole,  submitted  to  the  De- 
partment of  Justice  through  this  Department  under 
arrangements  made  in  accordance  with  the  Presi- 
dent's proclamation  of  April  6,  1917;  the  examina- 


206  >V.  B.  WILSON 

tion  and  taking  into  custody  of  Germans  arriving  as 
passengers  and  as  seamen  on  American  and  neutral 
ships;  and  the  apprehension  and  taking  into  custody 
of  others  found  to  be  at  large  in  the  United  States 
whose  continued  freedom  here  was  deemed  to  be 
against  the  interests  of  the  United  States  while  the 
war  was  in  progress.  It  further  became  the  Bureau's 
duty,  owing  to  the  congestion  at  the  immigration  sta- 
tions at  certain  ports,  where  these  alien  enemies  were 
originally  interned,  to  select  a  site  and  construct 
thereon  appropriate  buildings  to  constitute  a  satisfac- 
tory internment  camp  for  alien  enemies. 


CHAPTER  XIX 
DURING  THE  WAR 

HAD  THE  Department  of  Labor  not  existed  at  the 
beginning  of  the  war,  Congress  would  have  been 
obliged  to  create  such  a  department. 

The  history  of  all  the  belligerent  powers  proved  that 
war  was  no  longer  a  military  undertaking  alone.  Al- 
though sound  military  strategy  remained  an  essential 
factor  in  determining  military  victories,  the  history  of 
the  European  war  demonstrated  that  the  most  val- 
orous troops  were  helpless  without  adequate  supplies 
of  war  materials.  Battles  were  fought  not  only  be- 
tween armed  men,  but  between  factories,  workshops, 
and  mines  of  the  contending  nations.  Since  industry 
is  but  the  application  of  man  power  to  raw  materials, 
the  efficiency  of  industry  was  wholly  dependent  upon 
the  efficiency  of  labor.  The  greater  essential,  there- 
fore, for  our  Government  was  the  adoption  of  a  cen- 
tral labor  administration  and  a  consistent  labor  policy. 
Consequently  upon  the  outbreak  of  hostilities  an  al- 
most unprecedented  responsibility  rested  upon  Sec- 
retary Wilson. 

The  war  was  the  immediate  cause  of  an  enormous 
increase  in  the  number  of  labor  disputes  calling  for 
Government  mediation.  Old  wage  standards,  ren- 
dered obsolete  by  a  sharp  rise  in  the  cost  of  living,  the 
prevalence  of  profiteering,  the  faulty  distribution  of 
labor,  and  many  other  causes  all  contributed  to  a 
probable  increase  in  the  actual  number  of  such  dis- 

207 


208  W.  B.  WILSON 

putes.  The  chief  reason,  however,  for  the  increase  in 
the  work  of  the  Department  in  this  respect  was  not 
an  increase  in  the  number  of  controversies.  It  lay 
rather  in  the  fact  that  when  those  disputes  arose  one 
side  or  the  other  hastened  to  call  upon  Secretary  Wil- 
son to  prevent  any  cessation  of  work. 

During  the  summer  of  1917  certain  industrial  dis- 
turbances had  accumulated  throughout  the  West  and 
Northwest,  and  had  taken  on  such  a  form  as  seriously 
to  lessen  the  output  of  several  much  needed  materials, 
notably  copper  and  oil.  In  addition,  they  were  of  such 
a  character  as  to  threaten  the  construction  of  air- 
craft and  ships.  Since  these  disturbances  were  ap- 
parently due  to  general  rather  than  purely  local 
causes,  it  was  thought  desirable  to  make  an  inquiry 
into  the  causes  of  labor  unrest.  A  Mediation  Commis- 
sion was  accordingly  appointed  by  the  President  early 
in  the  fall  for  the  purpose  of  conducting  such  an  in- 
vestigation and  of  making  the  specific  adjustments  re- 
quired. Secretary  Wilson  was  Chairman  of  the  Com- 
mission, and  the  members  of  the  Commission  were 
chosen  in  part  from  the  Department  of  Labor. 

Secretary  Wilson  and  his  Commission  spent  sev- 
eral months  in  constant  travel  and  investigation,  vis- 
iting the  copper  districts  of  Arizona,  the  oil  fields  of 
California,  the  Pacific  Northwest  timber  districts,  and 
other  sections  where  industry  had  been  disturbed  by 
labor  unrest.  Starting  out  in  the  early  fall,  the  Com- 
mission finished  its  labors  in  December  at  Chicago, 
where  there  was  a  threatened  strike  in  the  meat- 
packing establishments.  In  that  time  hundreds  of 
witnesses  were  heard  and  an  extraordinary  opportu- 


DURING  THE  WAR  209 

nity  was  afforded  to  study  at  first  hand  labor  problems 
in  part  created  and  in  part  modified  by  the  war. 

After  the  Secretary's  return  many  employers  and 
employees,  involved  in  controversies,  evinced  a  keen 
desire  to  secure  his  good  offices  and  those  of  his  con- 
ciliators. 

The  anxiety  of  the  Government,  particularly  at  this 
time,  for  a  full  production  from  mine,  mill,  and  fac- 
tory, in  order  that  the  war  progress  of  the  United 
States  and  of  our  European  allies  might  be  unham- 
pered, caused  Secretary  Wilson  to  strain  every  effort 
to  secure  satisfactory  adjustments  in  all  cases  with 
the  special  purpose  of  preventing  wherever  possible 
any  stoppage  of  work  and  consequent  loss  in  output 
and  wages.  Vastly  increased  production  was  thus 
facilitated. 

It  was  often  the  case  that  employers  refused  to  deal 
with  committees  representing  their  own  employees; 
but  even  in  these  instances  they  never  refused  to  meet 
and  discuss  the  merits  of  the  dispute  with  Secretary 
Wilson.  The  opportunity  thus  afforded  each  side  to 
learn  the  real  position  taken  by  the  other  soon  bore 
fruit.  This  knowledge,  or  glance  over  their  respec- 
tive fences,  usually  enabled  the  Secretary,  by  tact- 
fully emphasizing  the  mutuality  of  interest  and  such 
equity  as  existed  in  the  respective  claims,  to  reconcile 
the  differences. 

The  success  which  attended  such  work  was  most 
gratifying.  In  many  instances  strikes  which  would 
have  involved  thousands  of  workers  engaged  in  great 
operations  were  quietly  averted  through  the  efforts  of 
Secretary  Wilson.  All  this  was  accomplished  without 
publicity  and  the  consequent  excitement  which  in- 


210  W.  B.  WILSON 

variably  attends  industrial  disturbances  when  her- 
alded in  the  press.  Great  plants  thus  secured  unin- 
terrupted production  for  long  periods — some  of  the 
agreements  running  for  a  year  and  others  for  the 
period  of  the  war. 

There,  however,  was  much  for  the  Department  of 
Labor  to  do  besides  conciliation  work;  there  was  much 
for  it  to  do  besides  that  which  the  four  old  bureaus 
could  accomplish,  namely,  the  Bureau  of  Labor 
Statistics,  Bureau  of  Naturalization,  Bureau  of  Im- 
migration, and  the  Children's  Bureau,  together  with 
the  newly  born  Employment  Service.  Secretary  Wil- 
son, therefore,  determined  to  call  to  his  assistance,  as 
advisers  and  administrators,  a  well  balanced  corps  of 
men  and  women  of  high  standing,  representing  cap- 
ital, labor,  and  the  public.  Such  a  course  was  not 
only  desirable  but  necessary  in  order  that  any  policies 
determined  upon  should  command  the  approval  and 
support  of  employers,  employees,  and  the  public. 

Secretary  Wilson's  first  step  in  this  process  was  the 
appointment  of  an  Advisory  Council  of  seven  mem- 
bers chosen  to  represent  various  interests,  with  a 
representative  of  the  general  public,  Hon.  John  Lind, 
as  chairman.  The  other  members  of  the  council  were 
as  follows :  Mr.  Wadill  Catchings  and  Mr.  A.  A.  Lan- 
don,  representing  employers ;  Mr.  John  Casey  and  Mr. 
John  B.  Lennon,  representing  wage  earners;  Miss 
Agnes  Nestor,  representing  women;  and  Dr.  L.  C. 
Marshall  as  economist  of  the  council.  This  council 
convened  in  January  and  proceeded  to  formulate 
plans.  Many  recommendations  were  made,  nearly  all 
of  which  were  adopted. 


DURING  THE  WAR  211 

The  general  plan  involved  not  only  an  extension  of 
the  existing  organizations  within  the  Department  of 
Labor  so  as  to  make  them  suitable  for  war  emergency 
purposes,  but  also  provided  for  additional  means  by 
which  they  could  be  brought  into  proper  administra- 
tive relations  with  bureaus  in  other  departments.  It 
was  found  necessary,  in  carrying  this  plan  into  effect, 
to  depart  frequently  from  the  specific  recommenda- 
tions, but  they  were  adhered  to  in  principal  through- 
out. The  general  nature  of  the  recommendations  is 
indicated  in  the  following  memorandum  submitted  to 
the  Secretary  by  the  Advisory  Council.  This  memo- 
randum, after  reciting  the  essentials  of  the  war  labor 
administration  as  laid  down  by  the  President,  read  as 
follows : 

"The  Secretary  of  Labor  selected  an  Advisory 
Council  to  aid  him  in  formulating  the  national  labor 
program  and  in  organizing  an  adequate  administra- 
tion of  this  program.  The  progress  of  the  work  may 
at  this  time  be  summarized  as  follows: 

"(1)  A  call  has  been  issued  for  a  conference 
between  representatives  of  employers  and  of  workers 
in  order  that  agreements  may  be  reached  on  funda- 
mental principles  and  policies  which  would  govern 
their  relations. 

"(2)  An  appropriation  bill  is  ready  for  presenta- 
tion to  Congress  to  provide  funds  for  the  following 
services  within  the  Department  of  Labor: 

(a)  An  Adjustment  Service  to  deal  with  in- 
dustrial disputes. 

(b)  A  Conditions  of  Labor  Service  to  administer 
conditions  of  labor  within  business  plants,  such  as 
safety,  sanitation,  etc. 


212  W.  B.  WILSON 

(c)  An  Information  and  Education  Service  to 
promote  sound  sentiment  and  to  provide  appropri- 
ate local   machinery   and   policies   in   individual 
plants. 

(d)  A  "Woman  in  Industry  Service  to  correlate 
the  activities  of  various  agencies  dealing  with  this 
matter. 

(e)  A  Training  and  Dilution  Service. 

(f)  A  Housing  and  Transportation  of  Workers 
Service. 

(g)  A  Personnel  Service  (which  may  possibly 
be  fused  with  the  Information  and  Education  Ser- 
vice.) 

' '  In  addition  to  these  services,  there  will  be  utilized 
the  United  States  Employment  Service  and  other 
bureaus  already  established  in  the  Department  for 
which  funds  are  now  available. 

"A  plan  has  been  approved  by  the  Secretary  of 
Labor  whereby  these  various  services  have  been  or- 
ganized into  a  coherent  whole,  and  their  relationships 
to  existing  agencies  in  other  Departments  have  been 
indicated." 

Chief  among  the  plans  suggested  was  a  method  for 
formulating  a  set  of  principles  which  should  guide 
the  war  labor  administration.  It  was  vitally  neces- 
sary that  such  principles  should  be  accepted  by  both 
capital  and  labor.  Hence  it  was  desirable  that  they 
be  formulated,  in  so  far  as  possible,  by  employers  and 
wage  earners  jointly.  Upon  the  advice  of  the  council, 
therefore,  Secretary  Wilson  called  upon  the  Na- 
tional Industrial  Conference  Board  and  the  Ameri- 
can Federation  of  Labor,  as  the  representatives  of 
employers  and  wage  earners,  respectively,  to  send  five 


DURING  THE  WAR  213 

persons  each  to  a  war  labor  conference.  Since  it  was 
recognized  that  it  might  be  a  matter  of  extreme  dif- 
ficulty to  choose  a  chairman  acceptable  to  both  groups, 
each  group  was  invited  to  choose  a  chairman  who 
should  preside  upon  alternate  days.  The  personnel 
of  this  board  was  as  follows1 :  Joint  Chairmen — Hon. 
William  Howard  Taft  and  Hon.  Frank  P.  Walsh; 
Representing  Employers — C.  E.  Michael,  Loyall  A. 
Osborne,  W.  H.  Van  Dervoort,  B.  L.  Worden,  L.  F. 
Loree ;  Representing  Wage  Earners — Frank  J.  Hayes, 
William  J.  Hutcheson,  William  H.  Johnson,  Victor  A. 
Olander,  T.  A.  Rickert. 

In  spite  of  the  fact  that  the  members  of  this  con- 
ference board  represented  divergent  viewpoints,  a 
unanimous  report  was  presented  on  March  29  laying 
down  a  set  of  principles.  There  was  also  recom- 
mended the  creation  of  a  National  War  Labor  Board 
to  adjust  labor  disputes  in  fields  of  production  neces- 
sary to  the  effective  conduct  of  the  war.  Since  the 
conference  board  had  in  the  course  of  its  deliberations 
discussed  in  detail  the  probable  interpretation  of 
many  of  the  principles  adopted,  that  board  was 
deemed  best  fitted  to  administer  the  rules  and  func- 
tions set  forth.  Secretary  Wilson,  therefore,  ap- 
pointed the  same  persons  as  members  of  the  National 
War  Labor  Board,  and  this  action  was  formally  ap- 
proved by  Presidential  proclamation  on  April  8,  1918. 

During  1917  and  1918  perplexing  questions  had 

1  Subsequently  Mr.  Loree  resigned  and  Mr.  Fred  C.  Hood 
was  chosen  to  succeed  him.  Later  Mr.  Thomas  J.  Savage 
was  chosen  to  replace  Mr.  Johnston,  who  was  absent  on  a 
mission  to  Europe.  On  October  9  Mr.  Savage  died,  and  Mr. 
Johnston,  who  in  the  meantime  had  returned  to  this  country, 
resumed  his  place  on  the  Board. 


214  W.  B.  WILSON 

arisen  and  investigations  had  been  made  with  regard 
to  Negroes.  With  the  greater  industrial  efficiency 
demanded  by  the  war  it  became  apparent  that  a  more 
harmonious  adjustment  of  the  labor  relations  between 
Whites  and  Negroes  was  imperative,  especially  in 
view  of  the  fact  that  the  latter  race  makes  up  over 
one-tenth  of  our  total  population  and  includes  about 
one-sixth  of  the  working  population.  It  had  long  been 
the  policy  of  Secretary  Wilson  to  avail  himself  of  the 
best  expert  knowledge  obtainable  in  the  administra- 
tion of  such  problems.  Hence  the  requests,  made  not 
only  by  Negroes  but  by  many  white  persons  as  well, 
that  the  Negroes  be  represented  upon  the  Secretary's 
staff  by  a  person  of  their  own  race,  met  with  a  favor- 
able hearing.  In  January  the  Advisory  Council  was 
requested  to  confer  with  vaiinn  persons  who  had  been 
active  in  such  matters  and  to  report  a  plan. 

As  a  result  of  such  conferences  the  Advisory  Coun- 
cil recommended  that  a,  Negro  adviser  to  the  Secre- 
tary of  Labor  be  appointed.  After  consultation  with 
many  persons  of  both  races,  Secretary  Wilson  asked 
Dr.  George  E.  Haynes  to  advise  him  in  such  matters, 
and  tendered  him  an  appointment  as  Director  of 
Negro  Economics.  Dr.  Haynes,  who  was  at  that  time 
professor  of  economics  and  .sociology  in  Fisk  Univer- 
sity, Nashville,  Tennessee,  entered  upon  his  duties 
May  1.  His  function  is  to  advise  the  Secretary  on 
matters  affecting  Negro  wage  earners,  and  to  outline 
and  direct  plans  toward  greater  production  in  agri- 
culture and  other  industries.  This  step  was  taken,  not 
only  because  the  advice  of  an  expert  was  necessary, 
but  because  it  was  felt  that  a  race  which  made  up  such 
a  large  proportion  of  our  industrial  army,  and  had 


DURING  THE  WAR  215 

contributed  so  generously  to  our  military  and  naval 
forces,  was  certainly  entitled  to  a  seat  at  the  Secre- 
tary's council  table  when  matters  affecting  its  inter- 
ests were  considered. 

Among  problems  of  this  sort  submitted  to  the  Ad- 
visory Council  was  that  of  co-ordinating  the  services 
and  bureaus  in  the  Department  of  Labor  with  similar 
services  and  bureaus  in  other  departments.  In  the 
fixing  of  wages  and  working  conditions,  for  instance, 
adjustment  boards  and  agencies  existed  in  practically 
every  production  branch  of  the  Government.  The 
work  of  these  agencies  was  frequently  in  conflict,  and 
it  was  highly  desirable  that  their  policies  be  unified 
and  that  the  boards  themselves  work  in  harmonious 
relations  with  each  other.  There  also  were  incom- 
patibilities with  regard  to  the  supervision  of  working 
conditions,  housing,  and  many  other  functions  of  the 
Department  of  Labor.  As  a  means  of  bringing  these 
agencies  into  mutual  relationships,  the  Advisory 
Council  recommended  the  creation  by  the  Secretary 
of  Labor  of  a  War  Labor  Policies  Board,  to  be  com- 
posed of  the  chiefs  of  the  various  bureaus  and  ser- 
vices of  the  Department,  together  with  representatives 
of  the  other  production  departments  of  the  Govern- 
ment. 

In  accordance  with  this  recommendation,  the  War 
Labor  Policies  Board  was  created  on  May  13,  1918, 
with  Mr.  Felix  Frankfurter,  Assistant  to  the  Secre- 
tary of  Labor,  as  chairman.  Its  first  meeting  was  held 
on  May  29,  1918.  The  departments,  boards,  and  ad- 
ministrations represented  were  the  Department  of 
Labor,  the  War  Department,  the  Navy  Department, 
the  Department  of  Agriculture,  the  United  States 


216  W.  B.  WILSON 

Shipping  Board,  the  Emergency  Fleet  Corporation, 
the  Fuel  Administration,  the  Railroad  Administra- 
tration,  the  War  Industries  Board.  In  addition  to 
members  representing  these  branches  of  the  admin- 
istration, the  Policies  Board  had  advisers  representing 
labor,  and  others  who  were  qualified  in  business  man- 
agement and  technical  fields. 

The  need  for  the  War  Labor  Policies  Board  arose 
from  the  fact  that  the  Federal  Government  had  be- 
come the  greatest  employer  in  the  country.  And  al- 
though the  Government  represented  one  people  and 
might  therefore  be  expected  to  have  a  single  broad 
policy  toward  labor,  the  first  twelve  months  of  the  war 
brought  out  many  adverse  policies  from  that  single 
Government.  The  inevitable  result  was  that  the  na- 
tion, operating  through  different  agencies,  was  saying 
and  doing  irreconcilable  things.  Not  all  of  the  war 
policies  announced  by  the  several  branches  of  the 
Administration  could  be  right,  because  many  of  them 
were  mutually  contradictory. 

The  function  of  the  Board  was  to  reconcile  such  dif- 
ferences in  so  far  as  they  referred  to  administration  of 
labor  matters,  and  to  recommend  to  the  Secretary  uni- 
fied labor  policies  to  harmonize  the  industrial  activities 
of  separate  branches  of  the  Government.  It  was  well 
adapted  to  this  end,  since — although  it  was  created 
by  Secretary  Wilson  and  operated  under  his  direc- 
tion— it  included  responsible  representatives  of  other 
branches  of  the  Government.  Among  the  various 
matters  which  this  board  considered  may  be  men- 
tioned the  elimination  of  labor  turnover,  the  adop- 
tion of  uniform  standards,  industrial  exemptions, 
wage  stabilization,  and  the  employment  of  women. 


DURING  THE  WAR  217 

The  Advisory  Council  had  included  among  its 
recommendations  a  plan  for  the  general  supervision 
of  such  labor  problems  as  involve  women.  It  was  im- 
possible, because  of  the  lack  of  funds,  to  carry  out 
this  plan  at  the  time  it  was  proposed.  Application 
had  been  made  to  Congress  for  the  needed  appropria- 
tion, but  some  delay  resulted,  and  it  was  not  until  the 
end  of  the  fiscal  year  that  the  needed  sum  became 
available. 

The  Woman  in  Industry  Service  was  organized  by 
Secretary  Wilson  early  in  July,  with  Miss  Mary  Van 
Kleeck  as  its  director  and  Miss  Mary  Anderson  as 
assistant  director.  Miss  Van  Kleeck  had  previously 
served  the  Ordnance  Department  in  a  similar  capac- 
ity. The  effects  of  the  first  draft  had  become  more 
evident  and  the  importance  of  the  employment  of 
women  grew  daily  more  significant.  The  announce- 
ment of  the  plans  to  extend  the  draft  to  include  all 
men  between  the  age  of  18  and  45  brought  a  still 
keener  realization  of  the  fact  that  production  for  the 
war  would  depend  in  increasing  measure  upon  the 
effective  employment  of  a  growing  force  of  women 
workers. 

The  council  also  recommended  an  Investigation  and 
Inspection  Service.  The  functions  of  this  service  are 
outlined  in  Secretary  Wilson's  letter  specifying  the 
essentials  of  a  war  labor  administration.  I  will  quote 
from  that  part  of  the  letter  referring  to  the  Investi- 
gation and  Inspection  Service : 

"A  force  of  investigators  will  also  be  needed  for 
the  various  other  services  here  contemplated.  In 
view  of  the  fact  that  the  services  of  an  inspector,  ex- 
aminer, and  investigator  may  often  be  combined  in  one 


218  W.  B.  WILSON 

man,  especially  at  the  beginning  of  the  work,  and  also 
that  the  handling  of  a  field  force  which  travels  from 
place  to  place  is  a  large  task  in  itself,  I  believe  that 
the  greatest  economy  and  efficiency  can  be  obtained  by 
combining  these  field  forces  under  the  Secretary  in 
one  inspector  in  charge  and  in  a  special  service,  to  be 
called  'Investigation  and  Inspection  Service.' 

"It  will  be  my  purpose  to  require  all  new  services 
in  the  Department  to  use  this  Investigation  and  In- 
spection Service  so  far  as  possible  in  all  their  field 
work.  For  this  purpose  the  inspector  in  charge  of  the 
service  will  provide,  on  consultation  with  other 
branches  of  the  Department,  methods  of  inspection, 
investigation,  and  examination,  including  blank  forms 
for  reports  on  the  various  necessary  subjects,  and 
will  transmit  such  reports  when  made  to  the  various 
branches  to  which  they  belong. 

"'There  are  certain  limits,  however,  to  the  work 
which  such  inspectors,  investigators,  and  examiners 
do.  They  cannot,  for  instance,  act  as  mediators  or  as 
experts  on  training.  In  these  cases  the  field  forces 
are  estimated  in  the  services  to  which  they  are 
attached. ' ' 

Within  a  week  from  the  date  of  the  granting  of  the 
appropriation,  the  service  was  established  under  Mr. 
Ethelbert  Stewart  as  director  and  Miss  Gertrude 
Barnum  as  assistant  director.  On  August  15,  1918, 
Secretary  Wilson  sent  a  letter  to  all  services  of  the 
Department,  announcing  that  the  Investigation  and 
Inspection  Service  was  equipped  with  a  sufficient 
force  to  handle  the  business  of  investigation  and  in- 
spection for  the  various  services  of  the  Department. 

The  Advisory  Council  recommended,  among  other 


DURING  THE  WAR  219 

things,  the  necessity  for  the  creation  of  an  agency 
which  would  furnish  (a)  "a  satisfactory  method  and 
administration  for  training  of  workers;  (b)  an  agency 
for  dilution  of  skilled  labor  as  and  when  needed." 
Hence  Secretary  Wilson  formed  the  Training  and 
Dilution  Service  on  July  16,  1918,  and  appointed 
Mr.  Charles  T.  Clayton  director.  For  the  purposes 
of  administration  it  was  divided  into  a  Planning,  an 
Administrative,  a  Training,  and  a  Dilution  Division. 

The  Information  and  Education  Service  was  organ- 
ized July  1,  1918.  The  Secretary  had  already  ap- 
pointed as  chief  of  this  service  Mr.  Roger  W.  Babson 
of  Wellesley  Hills,  Massachusetts. 

The  legal  authority  for  this  service  is  found  in  the 
general  powers  conferred  by  the  statute  upon  the 
original  Department  of  Labor,  now  the  Bureau  of 
Labor  Statistics,1  and  in  the  additional  authority  con- 
ferred upon  that  bureau  and  upon  the  Department 
by  the  organic  act  of  March  4,  1913.2 

1 "  There  shall  be  at  the  seat  of  Government  a  Department 
of  Labor,  the  general  design  and  duties  of  which  shall  be  to 
acquire  and  diffuse  among  the  people  of  the  United  States 
useful  information  on  subjects  connected  with  labor,  in  the 
most  general  and  comprehensive  sense  of  that  word,  and  espe- 
cially upon  its  relation  to  capital,  the  hours  of  labor,  the 
earnings  of  laboring  men  and  women,  and  the  means  of  pro- 
moting their  material,  social,  intellectual,  and  moral  pros- 
perity." 

2  The  act  of  March  4,  1913,  Vol.  37,  P.  737,  provides  in 
Section  4  as  follows:  "The  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics,  under 
the  direction  of  the  Secretary  of  Labor,  shall  collect,  collate, 
and  report  at  least  once  each  year,  or  oftener  if  necessary, 
full  and  complete  statistics  of  the  conditions  of  labor  and  the 
products  and  distribution  of  the  products  of  the  same,  and 
to  this  end  said  Secretary  shall  have  power  to  employ  any  or 
either  of  the  bureaus  provided  for  his  Department  and  to 
rearrange  such  statistical  work  and  to  distribute  or  consoli- 
date the  same  aa  may  be  deemed  desirable  in  the  public  in- 


220  W.  B.  WILSON 

The  original  purpose  of  the  Bureau  of  Labor, 
and  the  interpretation  of  its  functions  by  the  first 
Commissioner  of  Labor,  was  that  the  office  was  to  be 
primarily  devoted  to  informative  and  educational 
work. 

The  Information  and  Education  Service  handled 
the  publication  of  information  and  such  educational 
matters  as  were  especially  needed  in  the  war  emer- 
gency. The  more  immediate  purpose  of  this  service 
was  to  promote  sound  sentiment  in  industrial  plants, 
to  combat  unsound  industrial  philosophies,  and  to 
acquaint  the  public  with  the  national  war  labor  pro- 
gram of  the  Government.  The  following  divisions 
were  created: 

(1)  Educational  Division,  under  F.  T.  Miller  and 
Clara  Sears  Taylor. 

(2)  Division   of   Information,   under   George   W. 
Coleman. 

(3)  Division   of   Industrial   Plants,   under   F.   T. 
Hawley. 

(4)  Division  of  Economics,  under  Dr.  Davis  R. 
Dewey. 

(5)  Posters  Division,  under  J.  R.  Colburn. 

terests.  .  .  .  And  said  Secretary  of  Labor  may  collate, 
arrange,  and  publish  such  statistical  information  so  obtained 
in  such  manner  as  to  him  may  seem  wise." 

Section  8  provides  that:  "All  duties  performed  and  all 
power  and  authority  now  possessed  or  exercised  by  the  head 
of  any  executive  department  in  and  over  any  bureau,  office, 
officer,  branch,  or  division  of  the  public  service  by  this  act 
transferred  to  the  Department  of  Labor,  or  any  business 
arising  therefrom  or  pertaining  thereto,  or  in  relation  to  the 
duties  performed  by  and  authority  conferred  by  law  upon  such 
bureau,  office,  officer,  board,  branch,  or  division  of  the  public 
service,  whether  of  an  appellate  or  revisory  character  or  other- 
wise, shall  hereafter  be  vested  in  and  exercised  by  the  head 
of  the  said  Department  of  Labor." 


DURING  THE  WAR  221 

In  addition  to  these  an  Inquiry  Office  was  also  es- 
tablished as  an  aid  for  the  improved  and  effective 
information  of  those  visiting  the  Department  and 
wishing  to  familiarize  themselves  with  its  workings. 
This  office  was  under  Miss  Alice  L.  Kercher. 

One  of  the  first  war  problems  which  came  to  the 
attention  of  Secretary  Wilson  was  the  problem  of 
housing  excess  numbers  of  war  workers  who  had  been 
gathering  in  industrial  centers.  As  soon  as  prepara- 
tion for  hostilities  began  on  a  large  scale,  industrial 
plants  were  doubled,  trebled,  and  quadrupled  in  size, 
and  man  power  to  operate  these  expanded  industries 
was  quickly  supplied.  This  expansion  occurred  so 
rapidly  that  in  hundreds  of  manufacturing  centers 
the  number  of  workers  soon  outran  the  housing  fa- 
cilities available  for  their  accommodations. 

At  first  such  congestion  gave  rise  to  problems  of 
welfare  only,  but  so  rapidly  did  many  of  our  indus- 
trial centers  increase  that  living  accommodations  were 
inadequate  even  without  regard  to  sanitary  condi- 
tions. Under  such  circumstances  Secretary  Wilson 
assumed  the  administration  of  industrial  housing  and 
transportation.  His  task  was  rendered  the  more  diffi- 
cult because  this  phase  of  our  industrial  preparation 
had  apparently  been  overlooked  by  those  charged 
with  the  merely  physical  factors  of  production. 

Congress  granted  appropriations  totaling  $100,- 
000,000  for  this  work,  all  of  which  was  placed  in  the 
hands  of  Secretary  Wilson.  In  anticipation  of  the 
granting  of  this  sum,  Mr.  Otto  M.  Eidlitz  was  re- 
quested to  undertake  the  formation  and  organization 
of  a  Bureau  of  Industrial  Housing  and  Transporta- 
tion in  the  Department.  Mr.  Eidlitz  had  previously 


222  W.  B.  WILSON 

served  the  Advisory  Commission  to  the  Council  of 
National  Defense  in  certain  preliminary  investigations 
by  the  Industrial  Housing  Section  of  a  sub-committee 
of  that  body.  He  had  also  acted  as  an  adviser  to 
the  Emergency  Fleet  Corporation,  and  was  quite  fa- 
miliar with  the  problems  involved,  not  only  as  they 
applied  to  munitions  centers,  but  to  shipyards  as  well. 

The  original  memorandum  of  the  Advisory  Council 
recommended  the  creation,  together  with  other  ser- 
vices, of  a  Conditions  of  Labor  Service.  This  recom- 
mendation was  in  general  compliance  with  that  para- 
graph of  the  President's  memorandum  which  directed 
the  Secretary  of  Labor  to  set  up  ' '  machinery  for  safe- 
guarding conditions  of  labor  in  the  production  of  war 
essentials."  This  branch  of  the  Department  has  been 
known  since  that  time  by  the  name  "Working  Condi- 
tions Service,  instead  of  the  Conditions  of  Labor  Ser- 
vice, as  originally  proposed. 

English  experience  had  demonstrated  to  Secretary 
Wilson  that  a  service  of  this  kind  was  essential  in 
order  to  secure  the  largest  possible  output  of  muni- 
tions of  war.  Where  no  supervisory  power  over  con- 
ditions of  labor  was  exercised,  health  precautions  were 
disregarded  and  the  hours  of  labor  extended,  with  a 
consequent  reduction  in  health  and  efficiency.  In  the 
United  States,  it  is  true,  the  laws  of  the  States  pro- 
vide certain  standards  for  working  conditions,  par- 
ticularly with  reference  to  light,  air,  and  safety  ap- 
pliances. These  laws,  however,  are  not  uniform 
among  the  several  States,  and  certainly  were  not 
adapted  to  the  industries  which  sprang  up  during  the 
war. 

Prior  to  the  establishment  of  the  Working  Condi- 


DURING  THE  WAR  223 

tions  Service,  the  various  production  departments  of 
the  Government  each  had  some  form  of  organization 
to  supervise  work  upon  contracts  placed  by  the  re- 
spective departments.  These  bureaus,  however,  had 
no  single  point  of  contact  and  no  machinery  by  which 
uniformity  in  the  respective  standards  set  up  by 
them  could  be  effected.  Hence  the  necessity  for  cen- 
tralizing all  existing  machinery  having  to  do  with 
working  conditions  in  the  Department  of  Labor. 

The  "Working  Conditions  Service  was  established 
early  in  August,  1918,  by  the  appointment  of  Mr. 
Grant  Hamilton  as  its  director.  For  administrative 
purposes  there  are  three  divisions,  a  Division  of  In- 
dustrial Hygiene  and  Medicine,  a  Division  of  Labor 
Administration,  and  a  Division  of  Safety  Engineer- 
ing. 

The  Division  of  Industrial  Hygiene  and  Medicine 
worked  in  co-operation  with  the  United  States  Public 
Health  Service  in  the  Treasury  Department.  As  a 
result  of  an  agreement  reached  between  the  two  ser- 
vices, personnel  was  detailed  from  the  Public  Health 
Service  to  the  "Working  Conditions  Service.  Dr.  A. 
J.  Lanza,  of  the  former  service,  was  detailed  to  act 
as  Chief  of  the  Division  of  Industrial  Hygiene  and 
Medicine.  Dr.  C.  D.  Selby,  of  Toledo,  Ohio,  was  Chief 
of  the  Section  of  Industrial  Medicine.  The  function 
of  this  section  was  to  organize  medical  preventive 
methods  and  to  endeavor  to  keep  employees  in  proper 
health  condition  to  do  their  best  work.  It  was  its 
endeavor,  also,  to  reduce  occupational  disease,  and  to 
discover  health  hazards  in  order  to  reduce  labor  turn- 
over. It  directed  the  formation  of  sanitary  and 
health  codes  for  industries. 


224  W.  B.  WILSON 

The  Division  of  Labor  Administration  dealt  with 
the  attitude  and  policies  of  management  toward  em- 
ployees and  the  personnel  relations  between  employers 
and  employed.  It  studied  the  general  problems  of 
labor  administration,  including  scientific  manage- 
ment, fatigue  studies,  auditing,  etc.  It  sought  to 
avoid  regimentation  and  endeavored  to  make  the  de- 
velopment of  individual  initiative  its  primary  objec- 
tive. 

The  Division  of  Safety  Engineering  formulated 
standards  for  mechanical  safety  in  much  the  same 
manner  as  the  Division  of  Industrial  Hygiene  and 
Medicine  dealt  with  sanitation  and  industrial  hygiene. 
In  the  formation  of  codes  it  co-operated  with  the 
Bureau  of  Standards. 

Prior  to  the  extension  of  the  departmental  organi- 
zation, through  the  expansion  of  the  United  States 
Employment  Service  and  the  subsequent  organization 
of  the  War  Labor  Administration,  departmental  busi- 
ness required  no  very  elaborate  machinery  for  its 
administration.  The  exigencies  of  the  war,  however, 
expanded  the  existing  bureaus  and  services  from  four 
to  fourteen.  The  presence  of  such  a  large  number 
of  administrative  agencies  naturally  raised  questions 
within  the  Department  as  to  the  relations  of  the 
bureaus  with  one  another  and  to  departmental  poli- 
cies. For  the  purpose  of  maintaining  coherency  in 
departmental  policy,  as  well  as  to  promote  friendly 
intra-departmental  relations,  a  departmental  cabinet 
was  instituted  by  Secretary  Wilson. 

The  members  of  the  cabinet  were  the  Assistant 
Secretary,  the  Solicitor  as  Acting  Secretary,  the  Chief 
Clerk,  the  Director  of  Negro  Economics,  and  the  ad- 


DUBING  THE  WAR  225 

ministrative  heads  of  the  statutory  bureaus  and  the 
war  emergency  services.  The  total  membership  was 
fourteen.  The  Secretary  presided,  and  in  his  absence 
the  Assistant  Secretary,  the  Solicitor,  or  the  Chair- 
man of  the  War  Labor  Policies  Board,  in  the  order 
named.  The  Chief  Clerk  of  the  Department  acted  as 
secretary  of  the  cabinet.  Meetings  were  held  every 
Tuesday  morning. 

All  during  the  war  Secretary  Wilson  looked  for- 
ward to  the  day  when  our  victorious  soldiers  would 
return  to  their  peaceful  and  customary  pursuits  and 
join  once  more  in  the  upbuilding  through  industry 
of  the  nation  which  they  had  defended  by  force  of 
arms.  Nor  was  he  unmindful  of  the  fact  that  the  over- 
whelming mass  of  our  armies  was  drawn  from  the 
ranks  of  wage  earners,  and  that  when  their  military 
task  was  done  these  men  would  return  to  the  ranks 
of  wage  earners.  It  would  have  been  an  ungrateful 
nation,  indeed,  which  did  not  deem  it  its  first  duty 
to  assure  to  its  returned  soldiers  honorable  and  profit- 
able employment.  It  has  been  the  unfortunate  ex- 
perience of  the  armies  of  other  nations  that  gratitude 
has  been  too  frequently  confined  to  words,  and  men 
who  have  risked  their  lives  have  too  often  been  re- 
leased from  military  life  to  find  an  industrial  con- 
dition where  there  were  more  men  than  opportunities 
for  work.  In  consequence,  such  men  have  frequently 
submitted  to  the  humiliation  of  accepting  alms.  Sec- 
retary Wilson,  therefore,  believed  that  the  problem 
of  providing  profitable  employment  for  our  returned 
soldiers  was  a  paramount  duty.  It  was  in  further- 
ance of  this  idea  that  the  Secretary  created  and  ex- 
tended the  United  States  Employment  Service.  The 


226  W.  B.  WILSON 

duties  of  this  service,  in  brief,  were  to  bring  together 
the  manless  job  and  the  jobless  man.  It  was,  there- 
fore, contemplated  to  use  its  full  resources  in  mini- 
mizing such  unemployment  as  should  occur.  Even 
in  the  most  prosperous  periods,  however,  there  is  a 
disparity  between  the  actual  number  of  wage  earners 
and  the  number  that  our  industries  can  absorb.  Un- 
der the  most  favorable  circumstances  this  unemployed 
surplus  is  such  as  to  give  rise  to  grave  social  and  in- 
dustrial problems.  So  long  as  this  basic  condition 
persists,  it  is  apparent  that  the  mere  bringing  together 
of  men  and  jobs  is  not  sufficient.  In  order  to  pro- 
vide for  this  surplus,  Secretary  Wilson  saw  that  we 
must  do  more  than  seek  for  employment  among  op- 
portunities already  existing.  We  must  correct  the 
disparity  itself.  Consequently,  he  faced  the  further 
duty  of  creating  new  opportunities  for  employment. 
Personal  experience,  as  well  as  the  undoubted  neces- 
sity for  a  continuous  augmentation  of  the  world's 
food  supply  for  many  years  to  come,  indicated  to 
him  that  a  more  extensive  as  well  as  more  intensive 
use  of  our  natural  resources  must  be  made.  The  soil 
must  remain  the  chief  working  opportunity  for  large 
numbers  of  the  nation's  wage  earners.  It  is,  there- 
fore, desirable  and  imperative  that  a  comprehensive 
policy  with  regard  to  the  public  domain  be  established. 
The  same  problem  was  before  us  more  than  a  half- 
century  before.  Access  to  the  public  domain  was 
provided  by  the  homestead  law  of  1862  and  further 
privileges  extended  specifically  to  soldiers  in  1872. 
The  results  of  this  policy  were  beneficial  in  that  they 
provided  work  for  unemployed  persons,  but  such 
benefits  were  also  accompanied  by  grave  evils.  Too 


DURING  THE  WAR  227 

frequently  the  efforts  of  the  settler,  who  was  not 
inured  to  the  hardships  of  the  frontier  or  familiar 
with  agriculture,  resulted  in  failure.  Isolated  from 
his  fellows  and  remote  from  the  advantages  of  the 
city,  the  pioneer  achieved  only  after  a  long  struggle 
such  form  or  organization  as  rural  life  now  possesses. 
Other  nations  have  profited  by  our  bitter  experience 
in  this  respect,  and  have  in  consequence  abandoned 
homesteading  or  the  method  by  which  the  early  set- 
tler is  merely  provided  with  a  land  title  and  left  like 
Robinson  Crusoe  to  work  out  his  own  salvation.  For 
the  uncertainties  of  homesteading  there  should  be  sub- 
stituted an  orderly,  properly  planned  scheme  of  colo- 
nization, in  which  the  Federal  Government  shall  es- 
tablish and  equip  not  only  individual  farms,  but  also 
link  them  together  into  organized  communities.  Rural 
planning  should  be  brought  into  play  in  order  to  make 
life  in  the  rural  districts  attractive  and  in  order  to 
stem  the  movement  from  the  farm  to  the  cities. 

Settlers  should  likewise  be  protected  from  the  evils 
of  land  speculation.  The  liberal  grants  of  former 
years  to  soldiers  were  of  almost  no  value  to  the  sup- 
posed beneficiaries,  because  of  the  speedy  transfer  to 
persons  who  were  primarily  interested  in  the  resale 
of  such  lands  at  higher  prices.  Speculation  and  in- 
flation are  evils  which  it  has  been  found  impossible 
to  correct  in  the  experience  of  our  associated  bellig- 
erents. The  Secretary  therefore  favored  the  adoption 
of  some  form  of  tenure  which  would  lay  less  stress 
upon  title  and  more  upon  actual  use  of  occupants. 
The  absolute  tenure  does  not  seem  to  be  well  adapted 
to  public  colonization,  since  it  is  useless  to  the  work- 
ing settler  and  attractive  to  the  speculator.  There 


228  W.  B.  WILSON 

are  several  other  forms  of  tenure,  including  the  per- 
petual leasehold,  better  adapted  for  our  purposes. 

Secretary  Wilson,  therefore,  recommended  the  early 
enactment  of  such  legislation  as  would  be  necessary 
to  permit  the  preparation  of  the  public  domain  for 
this  purpose.  Such  legislation  should,  he  believed, 
provide  for  the  purchase  of  such  privately  owned 
areas  as  it  may  be  found  desirable  to  add  to  the  public 
areas.  Moreover,  it  should  not  be  limited  to  agricul- 
ture. In  this  connection  he  wrote: 

"Great  areas  are,  by  reason  of  natural  adaptation, 
necessarily  destined  for  forest  uses.  The  wasteful 
methods  in  vogue  in  the  past  in  the  lumber  industry 
have  resulted  in  the  practical  destruction  of  our  fine 
forest  areas.  The  policy  has  been  to  treat  trees  as 
deposits  of  wood  above  the  surface  and  of  the  same 
nature  as  mines,  which  are  deposits  of  mineral  below 
the  surface.  These  deposits  have  been  destroyed  one 
after  the  other  without  regard  for  the  needs  of  the 
future.  At  the  same  time,  the  industry  has  been  a 
movable  one,  operated  in  the  main  by  men  the  nature 
of  whose  work  denies  them  home  or  marriage  or  even 
votes.  No  one  who  has  the  interest  of  America  at 
heart  can  look  forward  with  tolerance  to  the  growth 
or  continuance  of  a  body  of  migratory  workers,  who 
in  the  nature  of  the  case  must  have  lower  social  and 
moral  standards  than  their  fellows  and  a  hatred  for 
the  law  which  they  have  never  known  except  in  the 
repressive  aspect.  Happily,  the  possession  of  the  Na- 
tional Forests  gives  us  an  opportunity  to  apply  the 
principles  of  colonization  to  timber  lands  also.  The 
substitution  of  scientific  silviculture  for  timber  min- 
ing will  give  us  an  opportunity  to  establish  perma- 


DURING  THE  WAR  229 

nent  forest  communities  where  local  self-government, 
marriage,  and  education  are  possible. 

"In  presenting  these  recommendations  at  this  time, 
I  regard  it  as  unnecessary  to  point  out  further  possi- 
bilities, of  which  the  foregoing  will  serve  as  an  ex- 
ample. In  setting  forth  the  necessity  for  land  settle- 
ment I  am  not  unmindful  of  the  vast  numbers  who 
must  again  find  places  in  our  complex  industrial  or- 
ganization. It  is  too  early  at  present  to  forecast 
accurately  the  industrial  organization  or  needs  of  our 
nation  after  the  w?,r.  All  the  properly  adapted  facil- 
ities of  the  Department  of  Labor  are  at  present  en- 
gaged in  the  study  of  those  problems  of  reconstruc- 
tion peculiar  to  manufacturing  and  secondary  indus- 
try ;  and  from  time  to  time  I  shall  have  recommenda- 
tions and  conclusions  to  present  based  upon  such 
studies.  No  such  doubt,  however,  exists  with  regard 
to  primary  industry,  and  I  urge  early  legislation  in 
accordance  with  the  principles  laid  down  in  the  fore- 
going paragraphs. 

"Legislation  upon  this  important  subject  should 
include  three  minimum  provisions:  (1)  Possibilities 
of  commercialized  speculation  in  titles  must  be 
guarded  against.  (2)  Colonists  must  be  given  access 
not  only  to  land  but  to  farms,  not  the  bare  soil  but 
fully  equipped  agricultural  plants  Teady  to  operate. 
(3)  The  farms  themselves  must  be  welded  together 
into  genuine  communities  by  provision  for  roads, 
schools,  and  markets,  under  the  general  supervision 
of  the  Federal  Government. 

"The  primary  principle  involved  is  not  the  use  of 
men  for  the  development  of  land,  but  the  development 
of  land  for  the  use  of  men.  With  regard  to  machin- 


230  W.  B.  WILSON 

ery  for  putting  these  provisions  into  effect,  I  recom- 
mend the  organization  of  a  board  consisting  of  the 
Secretaries  of  the  Departments  of  Agriculture,  In- 
terior, and  Labor  for  the  further  organization  and  su- 
pervision of  the  general  plan.  Regardless  of  the  ma- 
chinery by  which  it  is  put  into  operation,  whatever 
legislation  is  granted  should  recognize  the  cardinal 
principle  that  the  natural  resources  of  the  nation  are 
for  the  common  good  of  all  and  should  be  accessible 
on  such  terms  as  to  discourage  speculation  and  ex- 
ploitation and  to  reward  diligence  and  thrift." 

In  connection  with  the  above  the  Secretary  recom- 
mended the  immediate  stimulation  of  public  and  pri- 
vate building,  and  especially  the  construction  of  pub- 
lic works  of  every  useful  nature.  Among  those  to 
whom  he  gave  the  responsibility  of  presenting  these 
plans  to  the  nation  should  be  mentioned  Mr.  Franklin 
T.  Miller,  Mr.  Frederic  C.  Howe,  and  Mr.  Hugh  Reid. 


CHAPTER  XX 
COLLECTIVE  BARGAINING 

OWING  to  the  very  large  acquaintance  which  Secre- 
tary Wilson  had  among  union  labor  leaders,  the  pres- 
sure upon  him  was  naturally  very  great  to  favor 
organized  labor.  This  was  intensified  by  the  fact  that 
organized  labor  has  always  been  very  helpful  in  se- 
curing the  necessary  appropriations  from  Congress 
for  the  proper  development  of  the  Department  of  La- 
bor. Although  Congress  passed  the  organic  act  cre- 
ating the  Department  of  Labor,  it  has  been  very 
niggardly  in  appropriations.  This  is  why  the  De- 
partment of  Labor  has  been  so  handicapped  in  its 
efforts  to  perform  conscientiously  the  work  given  it 
to  do. 

The  Secretary  always  believed  that  the  welfare  of 
the  community,  including  all  interests,  is  better  ad- 
vanced when  labor  is  organized  than  when  it  is  not. 
The  war  experience  showed  clearly  this  fact.  In  the 
industries  where  labor  was  organized  there  was  very 
little  trouble  between  1914  and  1919.  The  labor 
troubles  during  the  war  almost  wholly  existed  among 
the  unorganized  workers.  Notwithstanding  this  fact, 
however,  Secretary  Wilson  always  leaned  over  back- 
ward in  favor  of  the  employers  who  had  open  shops. 
Said  he  to  me  one  day: 

"Mr.  Babson,  my  great  ambition  is  to  have  people 
say  of  me  these  two  things, — first,  that  I  have  kept  my 
word,  and  second,  that  I  have  been  fair.  I  am  a  poor 

231 


232  W.  B.  WILSON 

man,  and  I  shall  die  a  poor  man.  I  have  had  a  very 
hard  life,  and  am  suffering  today  from  the  fatigue 
of  it.  I  care  not  for  riches,  or  power,  or  credit.  But 
I  do  want  people  to  say,  when  they  meet  about  my 
bier,  that  I  have  always  kept  my  word  and  that  I  have 
tried  to  be  fair." 

With  this  spirit  he  has  always  met  the  employers 
who  were  opposed  to  unions.  He  believed  in  their 
sincerity.  He  knew  that  the  employer  who  was  op- 
posed to  a  union  was  as  a  rule  just  as  conscientious 
and  honest  as  the  labor  leader  who  believed  in  a  union. 
Secretary  Wilson  knows  that  nothing  can  be  accom- 
plished in  this  world  through  force,  but  that  men 
must  be  converted  to  an  idea  through  their  reason 
or  through  their  heart. 

The  Secretary  always  opposed  hasty  action.  "It's 
the  oak  that  grows  slowly  which  becomes  the  great 
tree,  and  which  lives  a  long  time.  The  cottonwood 
trees,  the  birches,  and  the  rest  which  grow  quickly, 
can't  stand  much  wind,  and  they  always  die  quickly. 
Therefore,  although  we  must  constantly  keep  our  eye 
on  the  desired  goal  and  swing  neither  to  the  right  nor 
to  the  left,  yet  we  must  be  willing  to  move  slowly." 

It  was  with  this  attitude  that  Secretary  Wilson 
always  faced  a  problem  of  "Collective  Bargaining," 
in  favor  of  which  the  Department  of  Labor  clearly 
went  on  record  during  the  great  European  war. 
During  the  Secretary's  long  experience  in  settling 
labor  controversies,  he  found  that  two  things  promi- 
nently stand  out.  These  are  as  follows : 

(1)  Labor  refuses  to  assent  to  compulsory  arbitra- 
tion, believing  that  the  only  difference  between  a  free 


COLLECTIVE  BARGAINING  233 

man  and  a  slave  is  that  the  free  man  is  free  to  quit 
work  if  he  desires. 

(2)  Capital  refuses  to  grant  the  closed  shop,  be- 
lieving that  it  is  undemocratic,  and  that  a  labor  au- 
tocracy may  become  as  bad  as  a  military  autocracy. 

When  the  great  war  broke  out  labor  and  capital 
were  divided  into  two  hostile  camps  in  accordance 
with  the  above  declarations.  Secretary  Wilson 
brought  these  two  interests  together  through  the  for- 
mation of  the  War  Labor  Board  in  a  way  which  no 
one  else  could  possibly  do.  He  refused  to  discuss 
either  compulsory  arbitration  or  the  closed  shop,  but 
appealed  to  both  to  recognize  "Collective  Bargain- 
ing." On  the  keystone  of  "Collective  Bargaining" 
he  erected  a  structure  which  kept  American  produc- 
tion up  to  the  highest  point  during  the  war,  and 
which  has  since  served  as  the  basis  of  the  progress  of 
our  time. 

Another  master  stroke  was  his  co-operation  with 
ex-President  William  Howard  Taft.  The  joint  chair- 
men of  the  War  Labor  Board  were  William  Howard 
,Taft  and  Frank  P.  Walsh.  Naturally,  Mr.  Taft  was 
selected  senior  chairman.  Imagine  the  condition! 
A  Democratic  President  and  a  Democratic  adminis- 
trator, but  with  a  Republican  ex-President — yes, 
President  Wilson's  opponent — Senior  Chairman  of  the 
War  Labor  Board.  Furthermore,  ex-President  Taft 
went  into  that  Board  as  a  conservative  with  his  sym- 
pathies with  the  employers'  group.  This  was  a  most 
difficult  situation  for  Secretary  Wilson,  a  man  who 
not  only  represented  the  President  and  whose  affilia- 
tions had  always  been  with  the  Democrats,  but  whose 
friends  were  almost  wholly  among  workers,  There 


234  W.  B.  WILSON 

isn't  one  man  out  of  a  hundred  thousand,  yea,  per- 
haps out  of  a  million,  who  could  meet  this  situation 
with  the  kindly  spirit,  the  meekness,  the  helpfulness 
shown  by  Secretary  Wilson.  He  gave  no  orders.  He 
refused  to  exercise  his  power  as  Labor  Administrator 
of  the  nation.  He  simply  laid  the  facts  before  ex-Presi- 
dent Taft,  and  appealed  to  his  heart.  The  result  was 
that  when  the  armistice  was  signed  ex-President  Taft, 
a  Republican  and  a  conservative,  issued  the  following 
statement  concerning  "Collective  Bargaining": 

"Organization  of  labor  has  become  a  recognized 
institution  in  all  the  civilized  countries  of  the  world. 
It  has  come  to  stay;  it  is  full  of  usefulness  and  is 
necessary  to  the  laborer.  It  shows  serious  defects  at 
times  and  in  some  unions.  These  are  an  apparent 
willingness  to  accept  benefits  enforced  through  a  fear 
of  lawlessness,  a  disposition  to  use  duress  to  compel 
laborers  to  join  unions,  and  efforts  to  limit  output 
and  to  create  a  dead  level  of  wages,  and  thus  wipe 
out  the  necessary  and  useful  difference  in  compensa- 
tion of  those  who  are  industrious  and  skillful  and  of 
those  who  are  lazy  and  do  not  strive  to  increase  the 
product  of  the  employer  whom  they  serve.  These 
are  evils  that  as  the  unions  grow  in  wise  and  intelli- 
gent leadership  we  may  well  hope  are  being  minimized. 

"Much  can  be  done  by  employers  in  anticipating 
just  demands  of  employees.  Workers  have  had  too 
many  instances  of  holding  back  of  employers  until  they 
are  forced  to  do  justice.  Too  many  employers  seek  to 
justify  failure  to  raise  wages  by  pointing  to  their 
welfare  work  for  their  employees.  This  is  of  a  pa- 
ternal character  and  impresses  the  workers  with  the 
idea  that  they  are  being  looked  after  as  wards  and  not 


COLLECTIVE  BARGAINING  235 

treated  as  men  capable  of  exercising  independent  dis- 
cretion as  to  their  welfare.  They  are  apt  to  give  the 
employees  the  idea  that  it  is  a  generous  concession 
they  are  making  out  of  the  goodness  of  their  hearts, 
and  that  they  are  not  merely  yielding  a  right  for  a 
quid  pro  quo  for  what  they  receive. 

"The  most  difficult  persons  to  deal  with  are  the 
extremists  on  both  sides.  On  the  side  of  labor  there 
seems  to  be  such  suspicion  by  one  leader  of  another 
that  few  are  willing  to  make  a  just  concession,  not 
because  they  don't  recognize  its  justice,  but  because 
if  they  admit  it  they  are  charged  with  betraying  the 
cause  of  labor.  Thus  they  furnish  to  their  rivals  in 
leadership  among  workingmen  the  opportunity  to  un- 
dermine their  standing  with  their  fellows.  This  often 
puts  the  labor  side  in  an  indefensible  position  and 
offers  to  its  enemies  a  basis  for  criticism  that  might 
easily  be  avoided. 

' '  On  the  other  hand,  there  is  among  employers  the 
bourbon,  the  man  who  never  learns  anything  and 
never  forgets  anything;  the  man  who  says:  'It  is 
my  legal  right  to  manage  my  business  as  I  choose,  to 
pay  such  wages  as  I  choose,  to  agree  to  such  terms  of 
employment  as  I  choose,  to  exclude  from  my  employ- 
ment union  men,  because  I  don't  approve  of  the 
tenets  of  the  union,  and  to  maintain  a  family  ar- 
rangement of  my  own.  I  do  fairly  by  my  men;  I 
pay  them  what  I  think  is  right,  and  they  will  not 
complain  unless  some  outside  union  agent  interferes. 
I  run  a  close  non-union  shop,  and  I  am  happy  and 
propose  to  continue  happy.' 

"This  man  is  far  behind  the  progress  of  our  social 
Civilization.  He  lacks  breadth  of  vision  extending 


236  W.  B.  WILSON 

beyond  the  confiner  of  his  shop.  He  looks  to  fear  of 
courts,  and  injunctions,  and  police,  and  militia,  as  the 
ordinary  and  usual  instruments  for  continuing  his 
business  peacefully  and  maintaining  his  rights.  He 
is  like  the  man  who  regards  the  threat  of  a  divorce 
court  as  a  proper  and  usual  means  of  continuing 
domestic  happiness.  He  does  not  recognize  that  we 
have  advanced  beyond  the  state  in  which  employers 
and  employees  are  mere  laws  unto  themselves. 

"He  does  not  see  that  the  whole  public  is  inter- 
ested in  industrial  peace.  He  does  not  see  that  the 
employers  have  certain  duties  social  in  their  nature 
that  are  not  defined  and  are  not  enforcible  in  law, 
but  exist  just  as  family  duties  of  care  and  affection 
exist.  He  has  not  followed  the  growth  of  things. 

"As  long  as  the  system  that  he  insists  upon  con- 
tinued, individual  laborers  were  at  the  mercy  of  their 
employers.  Whatever  they  got  was  a  concession. 
They  could  not  maintain  themselves  in  a  contest  with 
their  employer,  dependent  as  they  were  on  their  daily 
wage,  and  independent  as  he  was  with  accumulated 
capital.  That  very  unjust  situation  led  to  the  or- 
ganization of  labor  that  the  employee  by  massing  con- 
tributions may  maintain  himself  during  an  industrial 
struggle  without  wages. 

"This  has  come  to  collective  bargaining,  which  is 
bargaining  by  the  group  system.  A  group  of  laborers, 
knowing  their  rights  and  knowing  how  to  maintain 
them,  put  themselves  on  a  level  with  their  employers, 
and  the  result  reached  is  far  nearer  a  just  one  than 
by  any  before  attained.  That  it  may  often  be  unjust 
goes  without  saying,  but  so  are  all  human  attempts  to 
reach  the  right  line.  Of  course  those  individual  la- 


COLLECTIVE  BARGAINING  237 

borers  who  do  not  see  the  advantage  to  them  of  the 
group  system  have  a  right  i,j  stay  out  and  must  be 
protected  in  so  doing.  But,  whether  we  will  or  not, 
the  group  system  is  here  to  stay,  and  every  statesman 
and  every  man  interested  in  public  affairs  must  recog- 
nize that  it  has  to  be  dealt  with  as  a  condition,  to  be 
favored  in  such  a  way  as  to  minimize  its  abuse  and 
to  increase  its  utility. 

"The  workingmen  of  the  country,  since  the  war  be- 
gan and  the  importance  of  their  group  action  has  been 
emphasized  by  the  requirements  of  the  war,  have  been 
given  a  sense  of  power  in  their  united  action  which 
we  must  recognize  and  deal  with.  Of  course  they 
may  abuse  this  power;  and  if  so,  they  may  find  that 
they  are  not  the  entire  community ;  but  if  under  level 
headed  leadership  they  do  not  push  it  to  an  excess, 
they  will  be  able  to  do  much  for  their  members  and  in- 
deed for  the  community  at  large. 

"The  junkers  and  the  hunkers  on  both  sides  must 
stand  aside  and  will  be  set  aside  if  common  sense  pre- 
vails. The  danger  from  bolshevism  is  far  greater  than 
from  reaction  to  the  bourbon  type  of  employment. 
The  intelligent,  conservative  leaders  of  the  labor 
movement  should  be  encouraged.  Their  difficulties  in 
dealing  with  their  extreme  constituents  should  be  rec- 
ognized." 

Even  before  Mr.  Wilson  was  elected  to  Congress,  he 
was  often  sought  by  employers  as  well  as  by  wage 
earners  for  conciliation  purposes.  In  some  of  these 
cases  thousands  of  men  and  millions  of  dollars  were 
involved,  while  other  cases  were  looked  upon  as  in- 
significant. Mr.  Wilson  handled  them  all  with  simple 


238  W.  B.  WILSON 

justice  as  his  guide,  allowing  neither  friendship  nor 
sympathy  to  lead  him  astray. 

I  remember  one  instance  where  one  of  the  mines 
was  having  a  great  deal  of  trouble  with  boys  breaking 
windows  in  vacant  houses  belonging  to  the  company. 
One  boy  had  been  arrested,  and  the  boy's  parents  ap- 
pealed to  Mr.  Wilson  to  represent  them.  He  accepted, 
out  of  the  kindness  of  his  heart,  and  appealed  to  the 
company  to  release  the  boy. 

The  attorney  for  the  company  suggested  that  he  and 
Mr.  Wilson  go  out  to  the  boy's  house  and  interview 
him.  This  they  did,  and  the  boy  did  not  make  a  very 
good  impression  on  either  of  them.  On  the  way  home 
the  attorney  asked  Mr.  Wilson  what  he  thought  about 
the  case.  Mr.  Wilson  replied : 

"I  don't  think  anything  about  it.  The  boy  broke 
the  window." 

W.  B.  Wilson  always  stood  for  the  protection  of 
property  and  the  sanctity  of  contracts.  He  believed 
that  equality  of  opportunity  and  the  protection  of 
property  must  go  hand  in  hand,  and  that  in  the  long 
run  one  cannot  exist  without  the  other.  He  believed 
in  organized  labor,  and  always  recommended  to  em- 
ployers that  they  should  encourage  the  organization 
of  their  men,  and  should  deal  with  such  organizations ; 
but  he  also  insisted  that  the  men  should  keep  their 
word.  I  remember  numerous  instances,  when  there 
had  been  a  slight  temptation  on  the  part  of  some  of  the 
workers  to  go  back  on  their  agreement — as  in  the 
Seattle  Water  Front  case,  for  instance — that  the 
Secretary  would  send  this  message : 

"The  average  workingman  has  little  else  to  lose 


COLLECTIVE  BARGAINING  239 

than  his  honor  and  integrity.    When  that  is  gone  he 
is  in  a  sorry  plight  indeed." 

I  have  never  known  an  instance  where  employers 
have  been  better  off  by  not  taking  the  Secretary's 
advice.  Let  me  state  one  of  the  many  cases  which  came 
to  my  personal  attention.  Some  manufacturers  came  to 
Secretary  Wilson  and  Mr.  Hugh  L.  Kerwin,  Director 
of  the  Conciliation  Service,  and  stated  that  their  men 
were  uneasy  and  demanded  an  increase.  The  manu- 
facturers said  that  they  were  willing  to  give  the  men 
an  increase  of  ten  per  cent,  and  would  post  a  notice  to 
that  effect,  but  would  not  meet  committees  of  their 
men.  Mr.  Kerwin,  however,  told  them  that  the  in- 
crease was  not  the  most  important  matter,  but  rather 
that  the  men  wanted  to  be  recognized  and  consulted. 
This  the  manufacturers  positively  refused  to  do,  say- 
ing that  their  self-respect  would  not  permit  them  to 
discuss  their  business  affairs  with  their  employees. 
Of  course,  it  was  the  self-respect  of  the  employees 
which  made  them  desire  recognition.  Finally,  a  strike 
came  on  and  twenty-five  hundred  men  went  out.  The 
case  went  to  the  War  Labor  Board,  which  awarded 
the  men  double  what  they  were  formerly  willing  to 
settle  for  in  the  conference  with  the  manufacturers. 


CHAPTER  XXI 
WILSON  POLICIES 

"SENTIMENT  rules  the  world."  On  January  22, 
1919,  Secretary  Wilson  called  together  the  chiefs  of 
the  different  bureaus  and  services  into  his  office.  For 
some  time  a  committee,  consisting  of  the  Assistant 
Secretary,  Hon.  Louis  F.  Post,  Chairman ;  Mr.  Walter 
Parker,  Vice  Chairman;  Mr.  Grant  Hamilton;  Miss 
Mary  Van  Kleeck,  and  myself,  had  been  studying 
plans  for  the  reorganization  of  the  Department  of 
Labor.  The  actual  report  had  been  written  by  Mr. 
Parker,  and,  at  the  suggestion  of  the  Assistant  Secre- 
tary, we  purchased  for  him,  as  a  token  of  apprecia- 
tion, a  set  of  books.  The  presentation  was  made  by 
Secretary  Wilson  on  the  morning  just  referred  to. 

The  Secretary  began  by  saying  that  money  is  the 
controlling  factor  with  a  great  many  men,  but  that 
men  who  have  accumulated  great  wealth  are  quickly 
forgotten,  and  almost  no  one  has  won  lasting  ap- 
preciation through  the  accumulation  of  money.  He 
then  explained  how  a  second  group  of  men  are  actu- 
ated by  a  desire  for  power  or  fame.  These  men,  the 
Secretary  believed,  have  an  advantage  over  the  first 
group,  as  certainly  they  are  longer  remembered.  His- 
tory shows,  however,  that  such  men  usually  get  into 
trouble  sooner  or  later  by  attempting  to  serve  too 
many  masters.  The  Secretary  continued: 

"My  many  years'  experience  in  Washington  has  con- 
vinced me  that  the  only  men  who  secure  and  perma- 

240 


WILSON  POLICIES  241 

nently  retain  the  love  of  their  countrymen  are  those 
who  put  service  before  everything  else.  The  men  who 
seek  money  are  always  doomed  sooner  or  later;  the 
men  who  seek  power  or  fame  are  continually  taking 
chances  and  running  risks  of  disaster ;  but  those  who 
are  actuated  by  a  simple  desire  to  serve  are  the  ones 
who  ultimately  win.  The  paths  of  such  men  may  be 
long  and  tedious.  It  may  be  necessary  for  them  to  go 
through  sloughs  of  despond  and  to  climb  treacherous 
heights ;  but  by  keeping  the  one  star  in  mind  they  ul- 
timately win,  and  become  an  honor  to  their  families, 
to  their  communities,  and  to  their  nation. ' ' 

The  Secretary  went  on  in  his  interesting  and  remi- 
niscent manner,  explaining  the  reason  for  this  fact, 
namely,  that  the  world  is  really  ruled  by  sentiment 
rather  than  by  money,  or  any  other  factor.  It  is  not 
so  much  because  the  more  money  a  man  has  the 
greater  target  he  is;  nor  because  notoriety  naturally 
develops  jealousy;  but  rather  because  of  the  control- 
ling motives  of  life  are  love,  sympathy,  understanding, 
hope.  Some  quote  the  old  saying:  "The  higher  up  in 
the  tree  the  monkey  is,  the  more  stones  will  be  thrown 
at  him."  The  Secretary  believed  that  jealousy  is  a 
factor,  but  not  a  great  factor.  Yet  even  jealousy  is  a 
form  of  sentiment.  What  the  Secretary  meant  is  that 
it  is  the  intangible  and  unseen  things  rather  than  the 
tangible  and  material  things  which  rule  the  world. 

There  are  the  good  sentiments,  such  as  love,  sym- 
pathy, hope,  understanding,  but  there  are  also  the  bad 
sentiments,  such  as  jealousy  and  hate.  Almost  every 
great  movement  can  be  traced  to  these  sentiments. 
Almost  everything  we  do  is  done  from  some  such  mo- 
tive. Now,  the  men  who  are  actuated  by  service  ap- 


242  W.  B.  WILSON 

peal  directly  to  the  emotions  of  the  masses ;  while  the 
men  who  are  actuated  by  the  desire  for  wealth, 
power,  or  fame  appeal  to  those  good  motives  only  in- 
directly; they  most  directly  appeal  to  the  bad  senti- 
ments of  a  nation. 

The  Secretary's  great  success  in  the  settlement  of 
industrial  disputes  has  been  due  to  his  recognition  and 
understanding  that  sentiment  rules  the  world.  At 
conferences  which  I  have  attended,  where  the  different 
representatives  perhaps  would  not  speak  to  one  an- 
other, the  Secretary's  words  have  brought  them  to- 
gether in  common  agreement.  The  experts  represent- 
ing both  employers  and  wage  workers  had  come 
armed  with  tables  of  figures  and  volumes  of  facts. 
They  would  lay  these  papers  before  the  Secretary. 
He  would  thank  them,  but  never  look  at  the  papers. 
Moreover,  after  he  began  to  talk,  the  lawyers  of 
neither  side  would  refer  more  than  once  or  twice  to 
the  evidence  or  the  figures.  The  Secretary  knew  that 
men  are  not  reached  through  their  heads  but  through 
their  hearts,  that  very  few  people  can  be  convinced  by 
testimony  or  statistics.  He  realized  that  both  the  em- 
ployers and  the  wage  workers  are  actuated,  not  by 
facts,  but  by  sentiment.  Hence,  he  would  appeal  to 
them  all  as  men,  as  fathers,  as  trustees  of  a  community 
or  industry.  He  would  appeal  to  the  sympathy,  pa- 
triotism, the  hope  of  both  sides.  He  always  assumed 
that  both  employers  and  wage  workers  were  honest 
from  their  own  point  of  view.  He  believed  in  every 
man  and  saw  only  the  best  in  every  man.  He  real- 
ized that  fundamentally  wage  workers  are  not  fighting 
for  more  wages  or  shorter  hours  so  much  as  for  rec- 
ognition, and  that  this  applies  not  simply  to  the  rec- 


WILSON  POLICIES  243 

ognition  of  the  Union  but  to  the  recognition  of  the  in- 
dividual. 

If  only  this  could  be  realized  by  every  employer, 
how  much  happier  and  more  prosperous  this  world 
would  bo !  So  many  employers  say  to  me :  "  We  have 
recognized  the  unions ;  but  the  men  are  still  slacking. 
They  are  not  interested  in  their  work,  but  only  watch 
the  clock.  There  is  no  desire  on  their  part  to  pro- 
duce and  they  have  no  joy  in  production." 

This  is  true  in  some  localities,  but  the  real  reason 
is  that  the  employers'  recognition  stopped  with  simply 
the  formal  recognition  of  the  union.  The  recognition 
of  the  union  must  be  followed  by  a  recognition  of  the 
individual.  Each  man  must  be  made  to  feel  that  he  is 
important  and  that  the  success  of  the  establishment 
depends  on  him.  And  yet  the  average  employer  pre- 
sents just  the  opposite  point  of  view  to  his  men.  He 
tries  to  make  each  man  feel  that  the  business  could 
very  well  get  on  without  him;  perhaps  from  the  un- 
conscious feeling  that  if  he  praises  the  man,  the  man 
will  demand  higher  wages.  When  you  impress  an  in- 
dividual with  the  idea  that  he  is  unimportant,  when 
you  permit  him  to  feel  that  he  is  not  of  much  value  to 
you,  he  isn't  of  much  value  to  you,  and  every  day  he 
becomes  of  less  value.  Ambition  to  produce  can  be 
aroused  in  the  individual  only  by  impressing  upon 
him  that  he  is  important  and  valuable  and  is  entitled 
to  recognition.  Yes,  sentiment  rules  the  world.  Hu- 
man nature  in  a  factory  is  not  different  from  human 
nature  in  politics  or  human  nature  in  the  home. 
When  men  are  happy  they  are  efficient;  when  men 
are  unhappy  they  are  inefficient. 

The  Secretary  understands  that  great  fundamental 


244  W.  B.  WILSON 

truth  that  the  ruling  desire  on  the  part  of  every  per- 
son is  a  desire  for  appreciation.  We  love  most  thoae 
who  most  appreciate  us.  The  great  military,  political, 
and  industrial  leaders  of  the  world  are  men  who  mo*t 
appreciate  their  soldiers,  their  constituents,  and  their 
workers.  After  a  labor  leader  talked  with  Secretary 
Wilson,  he  left  the  room  with  the  feeling  that  the  Sec- 
retary appreciated  him  and  his  work.  When  an  em- 
ployer left  the  Secretary,  he  went  away  with  the  feel- 
ing that  the  Secretary  appreciated  him  and  his  work. 
Moreover,  the  Secretary  honestly  appreciated  the 
work  of  both  because  he  could  see  only  the  good 
points  of  both.  The  result  of  this  was  that  the  Sec- 
retary had  the  confidence  of  both  and  both  conse- 
quently followed  him  and  adopted  his  decisions. 

Our  industrial  troubles  will  become  less  only  as  both 
the  leaders  among  employers  and  wage  workers  get 
the  Secretary's  vision  that  sentiment  rules  the  world. 
Both  sides  must  realize  that  money  and  hours  are  but 
incidents  in  the  fight.  We  never  can  gain  the  love  and 
confidence  of  children  by  doing  things  for  them,  by 
increasing  their  allowances,  by  giving  them  pennies 
and  parties.  We  win  their  confidence  only  as  we  get 
them  to  do  things  for  us.  We  love  most  those  for 
whom  we  do  most,  rather  than  those  who  do  most  for 
us.  The  real  thing  which  is  being  fought  over  by  em- 
ployers and  wage  workers  is  self-respect.  The  em- 
ployer feels  that  he  cannot  give  up  for  fear  of  losing 
his  self-respect  and  prestige ;  while  the  wage  workers 
feel  that  they  cannot  give  up  for  fear  of  losing  their 
self-respect.  Statistics  show  that  pride  is  the  one 
greatest  cause  of  labor  troubles.  In  some  cases  it  is 
the  controlling  factor  with  the  employers,  in  other 


WILSON  POLICIES  245 

j 

cases  it  is  the  controlling  factor  with  the  wage  work- 
ers; but  in  most  cases  it  is  the  controlling  factor  on 
both  sides. 

A  corporation  is  willing  to  spend  thousands  of 
dollars  for  information  relative  to  material,  is  willing 
to  hire  experts  on  questions  of  law,  it  will  pay  huge 
salaries  to  men  to  work  in  material  fields ;  and  yet  it 
is  giving  virtually  no  attention  to  the  great  con- 
trolling motives,  that  is,  the  sentiments.  Not  only  is 
the  labor  cost,  which  is  wholly  controlled  by  sentiment, 
the  most  important  thing  in  the  expense  account  in 
every  business,  but  sentiment  likewise  controls  the 
purchase  of  the  goods  after  they  are  manufactured. 
There  are  a  few  men  who  see  these  points.  Secretary 
Wilson  is  one  of  these  men. 

"When  employers,"  said  he,  "will  give  as  much 
thought  to  studying  the  sentiments  which  control  life 
as  they  give  to  studying  materials,  machinery,  law, 
and  other  factors,  then  we  shall  be  on  the  road  to  in- 
dustrial peace." 

Mr.  Wilson  has  given  much  thought  to  the  question 
of  government  ownership.  Most  of  his  associates,  both 
among  political  leaders  and  labor  leaders,  are  great 
believers  in  government  ownership.  Resolutions  in 
favor  of  government  ownership  honeycomb  most  labor 
conventions  and  labor  platforms.  Notwithstanding 
great  pressure,  however,  the  Secretary  always  insisted 
that  government  ownership  is  an  experiment.  He 
says: 

"Nobody  knows  whether  government  ownership 
will  succeed  or  not.  Nobody  knows  how  much  of  it  will 
succeed  or  how  little.  There  is  no  reason  why  gov- 
ernment ownership  should  not  be  like  everything  else 


246  W.  B.  WILSON 

in  the  world,  subject  to  abuse  as  well  as  use.  One 
thing  we  do  know,  namely,  that  it  requires  a  great 
deal  of  overhead  expense  and  management.  It  seems 
to  require  more  overhead  expense  for  the  Govern- 
ment to  carry  on  operations  than  for  private  enter- 
prise. Briefly,  I  feel  that  if  it  is  necessary  for  the 
well-being  of  the  people  that  the  Government  should 
own  and  operate  any  line  of  business,  then  it  must  be 
done;  but  only  under  such  conditions  and  only  after 
much  thought." 

One  day  the  head  of  one  of  the  bureaus  of  the  De- 
partment of  Labor  came  to  Secretary  Wilson  and 
said: 

"There  is  a  concern  near  here  which  has  most 
wretched  working  conditions  and  is  employing  girls 
from  a  nearby  orphan  asylum  in  a  way  which  de- 
serves your  immediate  attention.  I  have  talked  to  them 
and  urged  them  to  complain  to  the  authorities,  but 
they  seem  content  with  their  lot." 

The  Secretary  sat  quietly  thinking  for  some  time. 
It  was  one  of  the  times  when  he  thinks  through  his 
entire  sentence  to  the  last  word,  including  the  final 
period,  before  opening  his  mouth.  The  clock  on  the 
bookcase  could  be  distinctly  heard  ticking.  Finally 
the  Secretary  said : 

"My  friend,  I  know  those  conditions  exist.  My 
heart  aches  as  I  think  of  those  women  in  that  base- 
ment, but  if  they  will  not  complain  there  is  nothing 
that  we  can  do.  We  cannot  save  people.  They  only 
can  save  themselves.  Anything  that  we  could  do  for 
them  at  the  present  time  would  be  mere  wasted  effort. 
People  cannot  be  helped  until  they  reach  a  stage  where 
they  want  help.  The  Bible  function  of  repentance  is 


WILSON  POLICIES  247 

fundamentally  and  psychologically  sound.  Only  as 
there  is  a  desire  within  the  heart  of  men  and  women 
for  better  conditions,  only  as  there  is  regret  and  re- 
morse in  their  hearts  for  the  life  they  are  leading, 
can  outside  help  be  of  avail.  Even  then  the  real 
help  is  not  from  without  but  from  within.  Not  only 
has  the  Department  of  Labor  enough  to  do  to  render 
help  where  it  is  requested;  but  this  is  the  only  kind 
of  aid  that  can  be  effectively  rendered  under  any  con- 
ditions." 

Labor 's  most  powerful  weapon  is  the  general  strike. 
The  radical  labor  leaders  have  always  talked  in  favor 
of  a  general  strike  and  have  often  earnestly  urged  it. 
A  general  strike  means  that  everybody  stops  work — 
the  idea  being  that  no  train  should  run,  no  street  cars 
and  electric  lights  be  furnished,  and  that  even  grocers, 
bakers,  and  milkmen  should  refuse  to  do  their  daily 
work.  In  the  minds  of  many  leaders  labor  should 
make  only  just  demands,  it  should  insist  on  these  just 
demands,  and  enforce  them  by  a  general  strike. 

Mr.  Wilson  always  used  his  influence  against  gen- 
eral strikes.  The  fact  that  few  have  occurred  in  the 
United  States  is  largely  due  to  his  influence.  Those 
that  have  taken  place  have  been  confined  wholly  to 
single  industries.  In  discussing  this  with  me  one  day, 
Mr.  Wilson  said: 

,  * '  I  learned  my  lesson  at  the  time  of  the  general  strike 
among  the  coal  miners.  It  was  agreed  that  we  should 
all  go  out  together  and  then  should  all  come  back  to- 
gether. We  were  able  to  go  out  together,  as  we  had 
only  ourselves  to  consult.  When,  however,  we  voted 
to  go  back  together  we  found  that  the  corporation 
also  had  something  to  say  about  the  going  back.  The 


248  .W.  B.  WILSON 

strike  had  disrupted  business  and  caused  some  con- 
cerns to  fail.  The  scarcity  of  coal  had  caused  some 
manufacturers  to  use  electricity  for  power,  others  to 
employ  natural  gas,  and  others  to  combine  their  re- 
sources and  pool  their  manufacturing  capacity.  Strik- 
ing is  something  like  plowing  a  field;  it  can  be  done 
in  a  few  hours,  but  it  takes  months  to  get  a  stand  of 
grass  again.  Yes,  there  are  many  objections  to  the 
general  strike,  but  the  primary  one  is  that  conditions 
are  different  when  the  men  are  ready  to  go  back  from 
what  they  were  when  the  strike  commenced.  These 
changed  conditions  make  it  impossible  for  the  men  to 
go  back  in  the  same  way  or  in  the  same  numbers  as 
they  left.  Many  must  necessarily  be  hurt. ' ' 

Mr.  Wilson  also  understands  as  few  men  do  the  in- 
efficiency and  hard  feeling  which  follow  a  strike,  even 
after  the  men  return  to  work.  He  has  been  very  sym- 
pathetic with  the  employers'  point  of  view,  knowing 
as  he  does  that  everything  ultimately  depends  upon 
production.  He  has  often  said  that  a  general  strike 
can  never  be  conclusively  won  oy  either  side.  The 
winner  is,  in  a  way,  the  loser,  because  the  loser  is  un- 
happy and  dissatisfied.  Hence,  Mr.  Wilson  was  al- 
ways a  great  believer  in  conciliation.  Labor  disputes 
are  best  settled  voluntarily  without  a  striEe,  or  with 
one  so  short  as  not  to  develop  hard  feeling.  In  the 
latter  case  no  rancor  is  left  in  the  mind  of  either 
party,  and  both  continue  work  whole-heartedly,  en- 
deavoring to  increase  production  to  match  the  increase 
in  wages  or  reduction  of  hours.  When,  however,  a 
strike  has  occurred,  and  bad  feeling  is  developed,  it 
makes  little  difference  which  side  wins ;  there  is  never 
the  same  efficiency  in  the  plant  as  there  was  before. 


WILSON  POLICIES  249 

One  of  the  greatest  strains  upon  Secretary  Wilson 
came  at  the  time  of  the  threatened  general  railroad 
strike  in  1916.  The  country  will  never  know  how 
close  it  came  to  a  great  catastrophe  at  that  time.  The 
nation  owes  an  immense  debt  of  gratitude  to  Pres- 
ident Wilson  and  Secretary  Wilson  for  their  efforts 
in  bringing  the  men  and  Congress  together.  Men  who 
were  there  will  never  forget  Secretary  Wilson's  get- 
ting the  great  leaders  of  the  brotherhoods  together 
and  saying  to  them: 

"Gentlemen,  I  know  that  you  can  call  and  force  a 
general  strike.  You  can  stop  every  train,  both  pas- 
senger and  freight,  and  stagnate  the  entire  business 
of  the  United  States.  But  let  me  ask  you  to  consider 
carefully  whether  this  will  gain  your  ends.  Experi- 
ence has  shown  me  that  little  is  accomplished  through 
force.  You  have  no  grievance  whatever  against  the 
public.  Your  grievance  is  against  t'ie  stockholders 
and  directors  of  the  railroads.  Don't  you  run  a  great 
risk  in  harming  a  thousand  people,  or  even  ten  thou- 
sand people,  for  the  sake  of  punishing  one  stock- 
holder ?  Certainly,  there  will  be  thousands  hurt  by  a 
general  strike  to  one  stockholder  whom  you  punish 
by  such  a  strike. 

' '  I  sympathize  with  you  in  your  desire  to  keep  your 
case  before  the  people ;  but  you  must  treat  the  people 
fairly  in  order  to  have  the  case  treated  on  its  merits. 
If  you  stop  the  trains,  it  will  be  only  a  few  days  be- 
fore New  York  City  will  be  on  the  point  of  starva- 
tion, while  New  England  will  be  without  coal.  Under 
euch  conditions,  do  you  think  the  people  of  these  sec- 
tions would  consider  your  case  on  its  merits?  No, 
they  certainly  would  not.  Instead  of  your  having  the 


250  W.  B.  WILSON 

sympathy  of  the  people  as  you  have  today,  you  might 
be  mobbed  and  lynched  by  them. 

"There  is  another  thing  which  you  should  remem- 
ber. If  the  masses  were  at  the  point  of  starvation, 
they  would  not  be  content  to  wreak  vengeance  upon 
you.  Law  and  order  would  be  pushed  aside.  The 
fact  of  your  striking  would  not  eliminate  the  food. 
There  would  still  be  food,  and  the  masses  would  take 
the  shortest  cut  to  get  this  food.  This  would  result 
in  havoc,  destruction,  and  the  disruption  of  industry 
from  which  we  all  would  suffer  for  years.  I  beg 
of  you  to  consider  this  most  carefully." 

As  the  result  of  this  talk  to  these  men,  and  a  corre- 
sponding talk  by  the  President  to  the  railroad  officials, 
a  compromise  was  reached  whereby  Congress  passed 
the  Adamson  Bill,  for  which  the  Administration  in- 
curred much  blame.  Let  me  say,  however,  that  this 
bill  was  purely  a  compromise,  and  it  is  only  by  such 
compromises  that  we  have  progressed  or  will  progress. 
Compromise  is  the  safety  valve  of  democracy.  Con- 
ciliation is  the  safety  valve  of  industrial  unrest.  Only 
as  both  are  encouraged  will  our  ship  of  state  safely 
outride  the  storms  ahead. 

"  Are  you  a  Socialist?"  the  Secretary  was  asked. 

"I  am  now  and  for  all  time  an  evolutionist,"  was 
his  reply.  "I  believe  in  a  natural  evolution,  which 
will  bring  about  the  condition  of  affairs  for  which  we 
are  all  fighting.  The  breach  between  labor  and  capital 
may  never  be  healed,  but  we  can  at  least  bring  about 
a  better  understanding  of  both  the  employee  and  the 
management  concerning  the  obstacles  which  make  that 
breach  possible." 


CHAPTER  XXII 
WHAT  OF  THE  FUTURE? 

' '  WHAT  is  the  chief  purpose  of  your  life  as  you  see 
it?"  This  question  was  one  day  put  to  William  B. 
Wilson. 

"Establishing  industrial  peace,"  answered  the 
Secretary  instantly. 

Establishing  industrial  peace  has  been  the  life 
work  of  the  Secretary.  Labor  leaders — and  he  has 
been  a  labor  leader  most  of  his  life — in  many  quarters 
are  supposed  to  thrive  on  turmoil  and  strikes.  But 
this  big,  ruddy,  earnest  miner  has  always  been  an  ad- 
vocate of  arbitration,  adjustment,  and  peace.  More- 
over, this  attitude  has  been  impressed  upon  the  entire 
Department  of  Labor.  Any  opinions  of  employers  to 
the  contrary  are  incorrect. 

"Industrial  peace,"  he  said  in  explanation  of  his 
answer,  ' '  is  both  an  economic  and  a  sociological  neces- 
sity. It  is  not  an  idle  dream,  'but  a  practical  possibil- 
ity. The  chief  requirement  in  achieving  it  is  ability 
on  the  part  of  those  dealing  with  issues  as  they  arise 
to  put  themselves  in  the  other  fellow's  place;  to  view 
the  question  from  all  sides  fairly  and  justly. 

"To  a  degree  there  is  partnership  between  labor 
and  capital.  Their  interests  are  parallel  in  the  mat- 
ter of  securing  a  maximum  production  with  a  mini- 
mum effort.  Only  beyond  that  point  do  their  inter- 
ests diverge.  Then  comes  the  question  of  a  division 

251 


252  W.  B.  WILSON 

of  the  profits,  with  each  side  humanly  wanting  more 
than  the  other  side  is  at  first  willing  to  concede. 

"At  the  point  of  divergence  the  practical,  sensible 
.thing  is  for  capital  and  labor  to  sit  down  quietly  as 
business  men  and  argue  the  thing  out.  Mutual  con- 
cessions must  be  made.  It  is  much  easier  to  secure 
mutual  concessions  after  discussion  when  each  side 
has  come  to  understand  the  point  of  view  of  the  other 
side." 

Here  Secretary  Wilson  illustrated  his  point  by  de- 
scribing the  annual  conference  held  in  the  bituminous 
coal  mining  business.  In  his  long  years  of  work  as  an 
officer  of  the  United  Mine  Workers  of  America,  he 
stood  for  this  principle  of  conference  and  agreement, 
and  now  sees  it  applied  to  the  bituminous  coal  min- 
ing operations  in  the  country. 

The  plan  is  simple.  It  consists  merely  of  assem- 
bling together  the  representatives  of  the  operators 
and  the  representatives  of  the  miners,  usually  at  In- 
dianapolis. Some  four  hundred  representatives  of 
operators  are  present  and  some  ten  or  twelve  hundred 
representatives  of  the  miners.  Their  questions  of  dif- 
ference are  threshed  out.  The  operators  explain  the 
difficulties  they  have  encountered,  many  of  which 
have  not  been  understood  or  appreciated  by  the  miners 
heretofore.  The  miners,  likewise,  make  clear  their 
troubles  and  necessities.  The  air  is  clarified  by  dis- 
cussion and  mutual  understanding.  Then  agree- 
ments are  made  as  to  wage  scale,  conditions  of  labor 
and  the  like,  with  provisions  in  the  agreements  to 
permit  them  to  be  changed  to  conform  with  purely 
local  conditions.  Contracts  are  entered  into  for  a 


WHAT  OF  THE  FUTURE?  253 

year  or  a  term  of  years.  Both  sides  profit  by  the  re- 
sulting stability  to  the  industry. 

"But,  in  these  conferences,  are  you  not  apt  to  lose 
sight  of  the  interests  of  the  consuming  public  ? ' '  some 
one  asked. 

"No,"  the  Secretary  replied.  "In  the  first  place, 
the  interest  of  the  consumer,  in  the  larger  sense,  is 
always  the  interest  of  the  producing  forces,  for  the 
producing  forces,  taken  broadly,  are  the  consuming 
public.  This  form  of  arbitration  is  «,!*«,  fair  and  the 
just  way  of  settling  disputes.  I  am  not  an  advocate 
of  compulsory  arbitration,  except  possibly  in  con- 
nection with  railroads  and  public  utilities.  In  the  law 
creating  the  Department  of  Labor  no  provision  was 
made  for  compulsory  arbitration,  and  I  am  inclined 
to  believe  Congress  was  wise.  If  you  compel  capital 
to  accept  the  result  of  an  arbitration,  capital  might 
be  required  to  operate  at  a  loss  until  entirely  ex- 
hausted. If  you  compel  labor  to  accept  it,  there  would 
be  created  a  condition  of  slavery.  Voluntary  arbitra- 
tion contains  no  such  objections,  and  in  the  end  is  most 
effective.  The  Department  of  Labor  believes  that, 
unless  a  contract  is  satisfactory  to  both  parties,  it 
would  be  better  not  to  enter  into  it.  Furthermore, 
the  Department  of  Labor  has  no  sympathy  with  the 
old  theory  advanced  in  Europe  by  a  school  of  trade 
unionists  that  labor  can  gain  advantage  by  curtailing 
production;  that  is,  by  setting  a  low  maximum  for 
each  worker  and  not  permitting  one  to  go  beyond 
that." 

In  discussing  this  once  with  me,  the  Secretary  said : 

"Certainly  I  am  not  in  sympathy  with  any  such 
notion.  You  will  find  very  few  intelligent  labor  men 


254  W.  B.  WILSON 

who  are.  The  theory  of  which  you  speak  has  no  gen- 
eral following  in  this  country.  Employer  and  em- 
ployee, in  the  very  nature  of  things,  should  be  mu- 
tually interested  in  getting  out  the  greatest  measure 
of  product  with  the  least  effort.  That  is  simply  com- 
mon sense.  All  trade  unionists  object  to  men  being 
driven  or  induced  to  work  beyond  their  normal  capac- 
ity, but  when  greater  production  can  be  secured  by 
the  same  expenditure  of  labor,  there  is  just  that  much 
more  available  for  labor  when  it  comes  to  negotiating 
wages  and  conditions  of  employment.  The  policy  to 
which  the  Department  of  Labor  should  always  adhere 
is  to  do  all  it  can  to  bring  labor  and  capital  together 
in  conferences,  so  that  they  may  settle  their  own  dif- 
ferences." 

No  one  can  talk  with  Mr.  Wilson  without  being  im- 
pressed by  the  exceptional  personality  of  the  man.  In 
physical  appearance  he  conveys  an  idea  of  quiet 
strength.  He  is  a  big  man,  big  in  mind  and  body. 
Mentally  and  physically  he  is  ever  alert  and  active, 
impressing  one  as  a  trained  thinker,  and  absolutely 
honest.  In  face  and  figure  Mr.  Wilson  appeals  to  the 
literary  imagination  as  a  splendid  model  for  Long- 
fellow's "Village  Blacksmith."  Perhaps  it  is  the 
touch  of  somberness  in  his  countenance  that  makes 
one  feel  the  depth  and  sincerity  of  the  man.  Deep 
thoughtfulness  is  written  in  his  eyes,  together  with  a 
mixture  of  tenderness  and  humor  that  is  irresistible. 
There  is  a  certain  indescribable  look  to  the  man  that 
tells  plainly  of  his  honest  love  for  humanity,  combined 
with  his  knowledge  that  the  problem  is  very  complex 
and  is  not  easy  of  solution. 


WHAT  OF  THE  FUTURE?  255 

When  receiving  callers  the  Secretary  listens  in- 
tently but  does  very  little  talking.  He  allows  his  vis- 
itors to  do  all  the  talking  first.  Then  simply  and 
concisely  he  says  what  he  has  to  say.  In  his  way  of 
thinking  much  and  talking  very  little,  he  reminds  one 
somewhat  of  Mr.  Rockefeller.  He  thinks  through  his 
sentence — including  the  period — before  opening  his 
mouth. 

All  his  life  Secretary  Wilson  has  been  a  worker. 
His  recreation  has  been  largely  in  working  for  others, 
endeavoring  to  better  labor  conditions  in  the  country. 
Simple  of  life  and  tastes,  the  acquisition  of  place  and 
power  has  not  changed  his  natural  manner  and  hab- 
its. He  still  lives  simply  and  sensibly,  and  the  at- 
mosphere of  his  small  farm  at  Blossburg,  Pennsyl- 
vania, is  fully  as  attractive  to  him  as  the  more  gay 
and  stately  atmosphere  of  official  Washington. 

Readers  may  wonder  why  I  have  so  intermingled 
the  life  of  Secretary  Wilson  and  the  work  of  the  De- 
partment of  Labor.  Some  who  have  read  this  manu- 
script complain  that  it  is  incoherent  and  should  con- 
fine itself  more  to  one  of  the  two  subjects  presented. 
From  a  literary  point  of  view  this  doubtless  is  true, 
but  not  from  a  practical  standpoint. 

My  object  is  to  give  manufacturers,  merchants,  and 
other  employers  a  correct  view  of  the  Department  of 
Labor  and  its  work.  This  Department  is  liable  to  be- 
come the  most  important  executive  arm  of  the  Fed- 
eral Government.  It  is  very  vital  that  it  should  be  un- 
derstood. The  policies  of  the  Department  of  Labor 
can  never  be  understood  except  by  knowing  the  man 
who  constructed  these  policies.  Moreover,  this  will 
apply  to  students  of  labor  conditions  long  years  after 


256  W.  B.  WILSON 

Mr.  Wilson  has  passed  away.  No  employer  or  wage 
earner  will  ever  be  equipped  to  understand  and  suc- 
cessfully to  deal  with  the  Department  of  Labor  with- 
out a  knowledge  of  William  B.  Wilson,  its  first  Sec- 
retary. 

One  thing  more  in  closing.  In  February,  1917,  Sec- 
retary Wilson  submitted  to  President  Wilson  a  draft 
of  a  bill  for  the  adjustment  of  labor  disputes  in  the 
transportation  system  of  the  country.  I  believe  that 
if  the  principle  therein  involved  can  be  enacted  into 
law,  it  will  prevent  most  strikes  and  lockouts  by  re- 
moving the  motive,  make  progress  possible  without 
the  use  of  compulsion,  and  at  the  same  time  conserve 
the  property  rights  and  liberties  of  all  persons  con- 
cerned. 

The  Secretary  always  opposed  compulsory  arbi- 
tration because  he  did  not  believe  that  any  man  or 
set  of  men  should  be  compelled  to  work  for  the  profit 
or  convenience  of  any  other  man  or  set  of  men,  but 
he  also  recognized  that  the  wage  workers  should  be 
reasonable  in  their  demands  and  should  not  abuse 
their  power. 

All  progress  heretofore  made  by  the  wage  workers 
through  their  collective  activities  has  been  brought 
about  by  destroying  or  threatening  to  destroy  the 
equities  of  a  business.  To  illustrate :  the  shorter  work 
day  has  not  been  obtained  by  reducing  hours  of  labor 
from  ten  to  eight  per  day  in  every  part  of  the  same 
industry  or  occupation  at  the  same  time.  The  ob- 
ject has  been  attained  by  grasping  the  opportunity 
existing  in  some  locality  to  compel  some  particular 
employer  or  employers  to  concede  a  shorter  work-day, 
and  then  utilizing  the  accomplishment  as  a  leverage  to 


WHAT  OF  THE  FUTURE?  257 

force  similar  concessions  from  other  employers.  As 
the  competitive  equality  and  power  of  the  employer 
granting  the  shorter  work-day  has  been  restricted,  it 
has  been  easier  for  the  wage  workers  to  force  other 
employers  into  line. 

In  all  systems  of  labor  arbitration  the  tendency  is 
toward  equalization  with  the  highest  existing  stand- 
ards for  the  workers  as  the  ultimate  aim.  With  a  con- 
tinuing system  of  arbitration,  the  lowest  standards 
would  in  time  be  brought  to  a  level  with  the  highest 
standards.  After  reaching  that  point  progress 
would  be  extremely  slow,  because  the  economic  pres- 
sure would  have  to  be  sufficient  to  lift  the  entire  load 
at  once  instead  of  lifting  it  one  piece  at  a  time,  as  is 
the  present  practice. 

In  any  system  of  continuous  arbitration,  however, 
the  final  protection  of  the  wage  workers  against  un- 
fair decisions  would  be  the  standard  of  living,  which 
is  flexible  and  which  may  be  raised  or  lowered  and  the 
workmen  still  live.  The  employer,  however,  would 
have  as  his  final  protection  the  clean-cut,  inflexible  line 
between  profit  and  loss,  which  he  would  be  able  to  show 
definitely  from  his  cost  accounts.  This  would  result 
in  a  system  of  continuous  arbitration  giving  a  greater 
measure  of  protection  to  the  employers  than  to  the 
employees. 

Although  compulsory  arbitration  involves  a  serious 
question  of  human  liberty,  which  no  majority  should 
have  the  right  to  invade,  yet  wise  labor  leaders  real- 
ize that,  if  people  should  be  cut  off  from  their  food 
supply  and  confronted  with  starvation,  they  would 
not  stop  to  consider  whose  rights  are  invaded  or  whose 
liberty  is  destroyed.  These  people  would  find  some 


258  W.  B.  WILSON 

means  of  securing  food.  They  would  take  the  most 
direct  road,  whether  that  happened  to  be  the  right 
way  or  the  wrong  way.  For  that  reason,  it  seems  the 
part  of  wisdom  to  work  out  carefully  the  problem 
when  no  crisis  exists,  with  a  view  to  conserving  both 
the  freedom  of  the  workers  and  the  food  supply  of  the 
people. 

Secretary  "Wilson  proposed  to  create  a  system  by 
which  nothing  could  be  gained  by  striking.  He  would 
remove  for  a  certain  period  all  temptation  to  strike. 
The  worker  would  be  left  free  to  work  or  not  work, 
individually  or  collectively,  and  the  employer  would 
be  free  to  dismiss  his  workmen  individually  or  col- 
lectively, but  the  motive  for  strikes  and  lockouts  would 
be  destroyed.  With  a  measure  of  this  character  on 
the  statute  books,  strikes  and  lockouts  should  never 
occur  at  any  one  time  over  an  area  sufficiently  large 
to  impair  seriously  the  industries  of  the  country. 
The  end  would  be  reached  not  by  crushing  the  work- 
ers, but  by  giving  them  a  different  method  of  adjust- 
ing grievances: 

Let  us  take  the  transportation  industry  as  an  illus- 
tration. It  is  presumed  that,  if  Congress  has  the 
power  to  create  a  Commission  to  regulate  rates,  so 
long  as  they  are  not  confiscatory,  it  would  have  the 
same  power  to  create  a  Commission  to  regulate  any  of 
the  component  parts  of  rates,  such  as  wages.  The 
further  thought  follows  that  the  cost  of  any  of  the 
component  parts  of  rates  cannot  be  confiscatory. 
Thus  such  a  Wage  Commission  could  not  establish  a 
confiscatory  wage. 

When  the  Interstate  Commerce  Commission  fixes  a 
rate  that  is  no£  confiscatory,  the  law  gives  it  all  the 


WHAT  OF  THE  FUTURE?  259 

force  and  effect  of  a  contract  between  the  shipper  and 
the  transportation  company  without  there  having 
been  an  actual  meeting  of  minds  between  them.  This 
principle  the  Secretary  utilized  in  preparing  his  plan. 
In  brief,  it  would  provide  a  fixed  wage  for  a  certain 
period,  with  the  employer  liable  to  civil  suit  in  case 
he  should  deviate  from  it  one  way  or  the  other. 

The  proposed  Wage  Commission  would  be  composed 
of  an  equal  number  of  representatives  of  employers, 
employees,  and  the  Government.  This  Wage  Com- 
mission should  not  be  given  full  judicial  powers  nor 
would  the  Commissioners  be  appointed  for  life.  It 
is  deemed  essential  that  the  opportunity  should  exint 
for  change  at  stated  periods  if  changing  economic 
thought,  the  development  of  bias  on  the  part  of  any 
of  the  Commissioners,  or  any  other  reason  should 
make  a  change  desirable. 

When  the  Interstate  Commerce  Commission  fixes 
a  rate  which  is  not  confiscatory,  and  which  is  based 
on  substantial  evidence  taken  at  hearings,  the  rate 
fixed  is  made  to  apply,  not  to  any  particular  shipper, 
but  to  any  and  all  shippers.  When  the  rate  is  fixed 
it  cannot  be  raised  to  one  shipper  and  lowered  to  an- 
other. The  same  principle  is  introduced  into  this 
Wilson  plan  in  its  application  to  wages.  Although 
means  would  be  provided  by  which  errors  of  law,  ap- 
parent on  the  face  of  the  record,  could  be  determined 
by  the  courts,  yet  all  employers  in  a  given  locality 
and  given  industry  would  be  treated  alike. 

It  is  believed  that  "by  making  it  impossible  for  the 
wage  rate  to  be  raised  or  lowered  within  the  period 
for  which  the  award  would  be  made,  the  principal 
cause  of  strikes  and  lockouts  would  be  eliminated. 


260  [W.  B.  WILSON 

Although  the  wage  earners  would  then  be  left  free 
.to  strike  and  the  transportation  companies  would  be 
free  to  use  the  lockout,  nothing  could  be  gained  by 
either  side.  Consequently  neither  strike  nor  lockout 
tuould  occur.  If  the  employer  knew  that  he  could  be 
sued  by  his  wage  workers  in  case  he  paid  them  less 
than  the  fixed  wage,  and  the  wage  workers  knew  that 
he  would  be  sued  by  the  District  Attorney  if  he  paid 
more  than  the  fixed  wage,  all  incentive  to  striking 
would  be  removed.  The  only  requisite  to  insure  the 
success  of  such  a  plan  would  be  to  have  enough  intel- 
ligent Wage  Commissioners  and  to  have  them  change 
the  rate  of  wage  often  enough  to  protect  both  the  in- 
dustry and  the  wage  workers.  The  chief  purpose  of 
such  a  board  would  be  to  have  the  rate  of  ivage  as 
nearly  as  possible  that  which  would  be  the  natural 
wage  if  left  to  tlie  law  of  supply  and  demand,  and  to 
have  it  apply  to  all  employers  (in  a  given  community 
and  industry)  alike,  making  them  liable  to  suit  for 
deviating  from  it  in  either  direction. 

The  Wage  Commission  could  be  given  thirty  days 
in  which  to  file  its  decisions  with  the  courts  and  ten 
days  thereafter  could  be  allowed  for  filing  exemp- 
tions; but  as  the  order  of  the  Wage  Commissioners 
would  go  into  effect  on  the  date  fixed  by  the  Commis- 
sion (unless  the  courts  reversed  the  action  of  the  Com- 
mission on  errors  of  law  apparent  on  the  face  ofthe 
record),  the  length  of  time  allowed  for  filing  the  order 
and  taking  exceptions  thereto  would  not  be  of  grave 
importance. 

The  employer  always  controls  the  fund  from  which 
wages  are  paid.  Hence,  under  such  a  plan  there  would 
^be  no  way  by  which  the  employee  could  compel  him 


WHAT  OF  THE  FUTURE?  261 

;jto  pay  more  than  such  a  Wage  Commission  might 
award.  He  might,  however,  pay  less;  but  the  em- 
ployee would  then  be  able  to  sue  and  recover.  If  he 
must  enter  the  suit  at  his  own  expense,  the  employee 
would  be  placed  at  a  decided  disadvantage  in  the  en- 
forcement of  the  award.  It  is,  therefore,  deemed 
equitable  to  require  the  United  States  Attorneys  to 
prosecute  the  suit  in  his  behalf.  By  the  same  law, 
however,  the  United  States  Attorneys  would  be  di- 
rected  to  institute  and  prosecute  proceedings  to  pre- 
vent employers  from  paying  more  than  the  award, 
so  that  a  strike  to  force  higher  wages  than  the  award 
would  be  valueless. 

The  awards  would  be  made  for  a  definite  period,  but 
sufficiently  short  to  make  it  useless  for  either  employer 
or  employee  to  tie  up  operations  pending  the  expira- 
tion of  the  award.  An  opportunity  should  be  given 
for  a  periodical  radical  readjusting  on  a  basis  of 
changed  conditions  or  advance  in  economic  thought. 
Provision  should  also  be  made  for  readjustment 
within  the  period  in  the  event  of  an  emergency.  The 
need  of  the  hour  is  increased  production.  This  can 
be  secured  only  by  making  the  wage  worker  happy 
and  interested  in  producing  all  possible.  This  means 
that  he  must  always  feel  right  toward  the  employer 
and  the  system  of  wage  adjustment  in  force. 

In  the  minds  of  many  of  the  ablest  captains  of  in- 
dustry and  leaders  of  labor,  this  is  the  most  hopeful 
solution  of  wage  controversies  yet  suggested.  Al- 
though the  Secretary  outlined  it  as  applicable  to 
transportation  and  public  utilities,  why  could  it  not 
be  applied  to  general  industry  as  well  ?  I  believe  that 
it  could  be  and  will  be. 


262 


[W.  B.  WILSON 


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WHAT  OF  THE  FUTURE!  263 

As  a  step  in  this  direction,  Secretary  Wilson  sub- 
mitted the  following  memoranda  to  the  Industrial 
Conference  in  October,  1919 : 

' '  There  shall  be  created  a  Board  of  equal  numbers 
of  employers  and  employees  in  each  of  the  principal 
industries  and  a  Board  to  deal  with  miscellaneous 
industries  not  having  separate  Boards.  The  repre- 
sentatives of  labor  on  such  Boards  shall  be  selected  in 
such  manner  as  the  workmen  in  the  industry  may 
determine.  The  representatives  of  the  employers 
shall  be  selected  in  such  manner  as  the  employers  in 
the  industry  may  determine. 

"Whenever  any  dispute  arises  in  any  plant  or 
series  of  plants  that  cannot  be  adjusted  locally  the 
question  or  questions  in  dispute  shall  be  referred  to 
the  Board  created  for  that  industry  for  adjustment. 
The  Board  shall  also  take  jurisdiction  whenever  in 
the  judgment  of  one-half  of  its  members  a  strike  or 
lockout  is  imminent.  Decisions  of  the  Board  on 
questions  of  wages,  hours  of  labor,  or  working  condi- 
tions must  be  arrived  at  by  unanimous  vote.  If  the 
Board  shall  fail  to  come  to  a  unanimous  determina- 
tion of  any  such  question,  the  question  in  dispute 
shall  be  referred  to  a  General  Board  appointed  by  the 
President  of  the  United  States  in  the  following 
manner : 

"One-third  of  the  number  to  be  appointed  in  agree- 
ment with  the  organization  or  organizations  of 
employers  most  representative  of  employers;  one- 
third  of  the  number  to  be  appointed  in  agreement 
with  the  organization  or  organizations  of  labor  most 
representative  of  labor ;  one-third  of  the  number  to  be 
appointed  by  the  President  direct. 


264  W.  B.  WILSON 

"Any  question  in  dispute  submitted  to  the  General 
Board  for  adjudication  shall  be  decided  by  the  unani- 
mous vote  of  the  Board.  If  the  General  Board  fails 
to  arrive  at  a  decision  by  unanimous  vote  the  question 
or  questions  at  issue  shall  be  submitted  to  an  umpire 
for  determination.  The  umpire  shall  be  selected  by 
one  of  the  two  following  processes :  First,  by  unani- 
mous selection  of  the  General  Board.  Failing  of  such 
selection,  then  the  umpire  shall  be  drawn  by  lot  from 
a  standing  list  of  twenty  persons  named  by  the  Presi- 
dent of  the  United  States  as  competent  umpires  in 
labor  disputes. 

"In  all  disputes  that  may  be  pending  locally,  or 
before  the  Industrial  Board,  or  before  the  General 
Board,  or  before  the  umpire  the  employers  and 
employees  shall  each  have  the  right  to  select  counsel 
of  their  own  choice  to  represent  them  in  presenting 
the  matter  in  controversy. 

"Whenever  an  agreement  is  reached  locally,  or  by 
the  unanimous  vote  of  the  Industrial  Board,  or  by  the 
unanimous  vote  of  the  General  Board,  or  by  the  deci- 
sion of  the  umpire  the  conclusion  arrived  at  shall 
have  all  the  force  and  effect  of  a  trade  agreement 
which  employers  and  employees  shall  be  morally 
bound  to  accept  and  abide  by. 

"  It  is  understood  that  this  plan  would  not  interfere 
with  any  system  of  joint  wage  conferences  now  in 
existence  unless  or  until  the  failure  to  agree  in  such 
a  conference  made  a  strike  or  lockout  imminent. ' ' 

Men  who  wish  to  anticipate  the  future  should  most 
carefully  study  and  digest  the  plan  above  outlined. 
It  is  not  Utopian  and  is  not  the  ultimate ;  but  it  should 
serve  for  some  time  to  come.  Certainly  we  cannot 


WHAT  OF  THE  FUTURE?  265 

long    continue    following    the    present    uneconomic 
methods  of  readjustment. 

As  I  look  back  over  Secretary  Wilson's  life  and  then 
forward  into  the  years  ahead,  it  seems  as  if  he  served 
as  Secretary  of  Labor  at  the  most  critical  period  in  the 
nation's  history.  Not  only  was  the  country  involved 
in  the  greatest  war  of  history,  but  the  labor  problem 
was  and  is  still  passing  from  a  stage  where  it  was  but 
an  incident  to  a  place  of  prime  importance. 

During  Secretary  Wilson's  life  the  struggle  was 
for  union  recognition  and  the  right  to  organize.  Al- 
though this  was  once  most  bitterly  fought  by  em- 
ployers, it  is  today  accepted  as  right  and  natural.  It 
is  now  generally  agreed  by  all  thinking  people  that 
both  labor  and  capital  have  a  right  to  combine  and 
deal  collectively  with  one  another.  Nevertheless,  the 
struggle  between  "him  who  hath"  and  "him  who 
hath  not"  will  still  rage.  It  has  always  existed  since 
the  days  of  Cain  and  Abel,  and  will  continue  in  the 
thousands  of  years  to  come.  The  labor  problem  may 
never  be  solved  as  long  as  wood  floats  and  stone  sinks, 
although  it  will  show  itself  in  different  ways  at  dif- 
ferent times. 

.  The  writer  feels  that  the  next  phase  of  the  struggle 
will  be  over  the  question  of  government  ownership. 
As  labor  secures  recognition  of  its  right  to  combine,  it 
then  seeks  a  hand  in  the  management.  Being  unable 
to  supply  the  capital,  it  naturally  turns  to  govern- 
ment ownership.  In  seeking  government  ownership, 
labor  feels  that  it  can  control  the  management 
through  the  unions  and  secure  its  capital  through  the 
Government.  The  time  is  not  ripe  for  a  discussion  of 
this  question,  and  it  has  no  part  in  the  purpose  of  this 


266  W.  B.  WILSON 

volume.  The  subject,  however,  should  not  be  dropped, 
nor  this  chapter  ended,  without  quoting  a  statement 
of  Secretary  Wilson's  on  government  ownership.  It 
is  as  follows: 

"The  Government  should  engage  only  in  such  ac- 
tivities and  pass  such  laws  as  are  necessary  to  give 
the  individual  the  fullest  opportunity  for  self-de- 
termination. To  the  extent  that  government  owner- 
ship can  give  man  more  freedom  of  expression,  to  that 
extent  government  ownership  should  be  encouraged; 
but  when  government  ownership  tends  to  repress  in- 
dividual initiative  and  development,  it  loses  its  ef- 
fectiveness," 


GEORGE    H.    DAVIS 
SPECIALIST   IN   BOOK    MANUFACTCBB 

200  Firm  AVE.,  NEW  YORK 


POSTERS 

PERSONALLY    PREPARED 

by 
SECRETARY  WILSON 


THE  BOYS 
IN  THE  TRENCHES 

ARE  NOT 


of  Peace  and  Good  Will  will  be  real 

only  if  we  among  ourselves 

practice 

Good  Will 


GOOD-WILLED  MEN 

whether  employers  or  employees 
are  the  bulwark  of  the  Nation 

Let  us  prove  our 
PATRIOTISM 


War  Fever 

is  not  necessary  to  keep 
any  real  American  a  real  patriot 

In  the  heart  of  the  Patriot 

the  NATION'S  good 

always  comes  first 


BY  PULLING  TOGETHER 

Labor 

and 

Capital 

MADE  POSSIBLE  THE  WINNING 
OF  THE  WAR 


THE  SAME  QUALITIES 
fif 

Self-Control 
Cooperation 
Industry 
Patience 

WHICH  WON  THE  WAR 

ARE  NEEDED 
After  the  War  Is  Won 


INDEX 


A. 


American  Merchant  Marine, 
140. 

Anderson,  Miss  Mary,  217. 

Anthracite  Strike  Commis- 
sion, 116,  117,  119,  120. 

Anti-injunction  bill,  144. 

Arbitration,  compulsory,    142. 

Arnot,  Pennsylvania,  13,  16, 
17,  18,  26,  32,  52,  60. 

B. 


Coleman,  George  W.,  220. 

Collective  Bargaining,  53,  191, 
192,  231. 

Combination  of  farm  and  fac- 
tory work,  62. 

Compulsory  Arbitration,   232. 

Conciliation,  97,  102,  103. 

Conciliation  Service,   133. 

Co-operative  Societies,  11. 

Corning,  New  York,  16,  17. 

Court  injunction  and  hunger, 
51. 


Babson    Composite    Plot,    74,      Cumberland    (Md.)    Jail,    51, 

75,  88. 

Babson,  Roger  W.,  219. 
Back-to-the-Soil       Movement, 

64-66. 

Baer,  George  F.,  114. 
Barnum,  Gertrude,  218. 
Bauchop,  meaning  of,  18. 
Blair,  Senator  Henry  W.,  148. 
Blantyre,  Scotland,  6. 


93. 
Cycles,  Business,  73. 

D. 

Deemer,  Elias,  122. 
Densmore,  John  B.,  164. 
Department  of  Commerce  and 

Labor,   142,   143. 
Dewey,  Dr.  Davis  R.,  220. 


Blossburg,    Pennsylvania,    647      Department  of  Labor: 


255. 
Boards     of     Directors,     labor 

representation  on,  58. 
British  Trade  Conference,  127. 
Brownlee,  Robert,  57. 
Bureau  of  Mines,  1357139. 

C. 

Cadzow  Castle.  11. 
Caminetti,  Anthony,   161. 
Campbell,  Richard  K.,  168. 
Cannon,  Joseph  G.,  130. 
Casey,  John,  210. 
Catchings,  Wadill,  210. 
Child  Labor  Laws,  44. 
Children   and   Mines,    10,   28, 

44. 

Children's  Bureau,  141,  174. 
Clark,  Champ,  130. 
Clark,  E.  E.,  117. 
Clayton,  Charles  T.,  219. 
Closed  Shop,  233. 
Colburn,  J.  R.,  220. 


273 


Advisory  Council,  210, 
218. 

Adjustment   Service,   211. 

Advocates,   Bill   for,   141. 

Commissioners  of  Concil- 
iation, 189,  196,  197. 

Conditions  of  Labor  Ser- 
vice, 211. 

Created  in  1913,  150. 

Division  of  Industrial  Hy- 
giene and  Medicine, 
223. 

Early  inception,  134,  147- 
149,  157. 

Early  Reports  of  Bureau 
of  Labor,  158,  159. 

Employment  Service,  203. 

Harvest  hands,  164. 

Housing  and  Transporta- 
tion of  Workers'  Ser- 
vice, 212. 

Information  and  Educa- 
tion Service,  212,  219. 


274 


INDEX 


Industrial  Hygiene  and 
Medicine,  223. 

Labor,   demand   for,   200. 

Labor  troubles  in  North- 
west, 208. 

Personnel  Service,  212. 

Policy  of  Department, 
183. 

Promise  to  form,  141. 

Provisions  and  scope, 
151. 

Purpose,  133. 

Scope  of  Act,  142. 

Secretary  as  mediator, 
188. 

Taft,  President,  signs  bill 
creating,  145. 

Training  and  Dilution 
Service,  212,  219. 

War,  preparing  for,  195. 

Woman  in  Industry  Ser- 
vice, 212,  217. 

Working  Conditions  Ser- 
vice, 223. 

E. 

Eidlitz,  Otto  M.,  221. 

Eight-hour  bills,  144. 

Ellis  Island  and  explosives, 
166. 

Employment  Service,  225. 

Employment  Zones,  165. 

Eviction  of  the  Wilson  fam- 
ily in  Scotland,  1,  10,  11. 

Explosions  and  flooding  in 
mines,  40. 

F. 

Fatality  in  coal  mines,  135. 
Fernegair,  11,  12. 
Fifteenth    Congressional    Dis- 
trict of  Pennsylvania,  122. 
Fingerless  Jock,  6. 
Foran,  Martin  A.,  149. 
Frankfurter,  Felix,  215. 

G. 
Gray,  Judge  George,  117. 


Hall,  William  E.,  202. 
Hamilton,  Grant,  223,  240. 
Hanna    Senator,  108. 
Haughhead,    Scotland,    1,    10, 

15. 

Hawley,  F.  T.,  220. 
Hayes,  Frank  J.,  213. 
Haynes.  Dr.  Geo.  E.,  214. 
Hilton,  Robert  W.,  132. 
Houses  or  stores,  corporation 

owned,  8,  9,  13,  45,  46. 
Housing  war  workers,  221. 
Howe,  Frederic  C.,  230. 
Howland,  Reuben,  26. 
Husband,  W.  W.,  19,  21. 
Hutcheson  Wm.  J.,  213. 

I. 

Immigration,  14,   19-25,  86. 
Immigration,  Bureau  of,  161. 
Industrial    Commission     Bill, 

144. 
Industrial  Department  of  the 

National    Civic    Federation, 

108. 
Infant  mortality,  176. 

J. 

Jealousy     in     mine    manage- 
ment, 57,  58. 
Johnson,  Wm.  H.,  213. 

K. 

Kercher,  Miss  Alice  L.,  221. 
Kerr,  James,  132. 
Kerwin,  Hugh,  33. 
Kerwin,  Hugh  L.,  36,  125,  239. 
Kiess,  Edgar  R.,  127. 

L. 

Labor  and  capital,  9. 
Lamb,  John  E.,  149. 
Land  Colonization,  228. 
Landon,  A.  A..  210. 
Lanza,  Dr.  A.  J.,  223. 
Lathrop,   Miss  Julia  C.,   175. 
Legal  rights,  54,  55. 


INDEX 


275 


Lennon,  John  B.,  210. 

Lincoln,   President,   173. 

Lind,  John,  210. 

Loree,  L.  F.,  213. 

Love  of  native  land  and  land 

of  adoption,  3,  4. 
Lyons,  John,  57. 

M. 

McKinley,  William,  148. 
Machines  for  cutting  coal,  39. 
Mann,  James  R.,  145. 
Marshall,  Dr.  L.   C.,  210. 
Meeker,  Dr.  Royal,   160. 
"Memories,"  36. 
Michael.  C.  E...213. 
Miller,  Franklin  T.,  220,  230. 
Miner's  life,  10,  13. 
Mining  disasters,   135. 
Mitchell,  John,   43,    107,   108, 
110,   113,  114,  118. 

N. 

National  Industrial  Confer- 
ence Board,  213. 

National  War  Labor  Board, 
213. 

Naturalization,  Bureau  of, 
168. 

Naturalization,  forcible,  24. 

Nearing,  W.  S.,  124. 

Negro  Adviser  to  Secretary, 
214. 

Nester,  Miss  Agnes,  210. 

O. 

Olander,  Victor  A.,  213. 
O'Neill,    Representative,    148. 
Organized  Labor,  234. 
Orth,  Gottlieb,  147. 
Osborne,  Loyall  A.,  213. 

P. 

Panics,  80-85. 
Parker,  E.  W.,  117. 
Parker,  Walter,  240. 
Peaslee,  Clarence  L.,  126. 
Piece  work  in  mines,  111. 


Post,  Louis  F.,  240. 
Psychology  in  posters,  37. 

R. 

Reid,  Hugh,  230. 
Rights,  legal,  53,  54. 
Rickert,  T.  A.,  213. 
Roosevelt,  Theodore,  113,  116, 
118. 

S. 

Salem  Fire,  165. 
Scotch  Sunday,  5. 
Seamen's  Bill,  139. 
Seasonal    vacations    for    city 

workers,  66-69,  100. 
Selby,  Dr.  C.  D.,  223. 
"Sentiment  rules  the  world," 

240. 

Sherwood,  Walter,  121. 
Ships,    taking    over    German, 

204. 

Smythe,  Nathan  G.,  202. 
Socialists,  128. 
Soldiers,  preparing  for  return, 

225. 

Spalding,  Bishop  John  L.,  117. 
Stewart,   Ethelbert,    218. 
Strike  in  Tioga  County,  53. 
Strike  of  1900,  104,  105. 
Strike  of  1902,  104,  109,  111. 
Strikes,  1,  8,  9,  86. 

T. 
Taft.    William   Howard,    145, 

213,   233. 
Taylor,  Clara  Sears,.  220. 

U. 

United     States    Employment 
Service,  97. 

V. 

Van  Dervoort,  W.  H.,  213. 
Van  Kleeck,  Miss  Mary,  217, 

240. 
Ventilation  in  mines,  41. 


276 


INDEX 


W. 

Walsh,  Frank  P.,  213,  233. 
War,  declaration  of,  204. 
War  Policies  Board,  215. 
Watkins,  Thomas,  117. 
Weaver,    General    James    B., 

149. 

White  House  Conference,  114. 
Wilson,  William  B. : 

Against    curtailing     pro- 
duction, 253. 
Ambition,  231. 
Anti-injunction  Bill,  144. 
Appointment,      Secretary 

of  Labor,  146. 
Birth,  3. 
Blacklisted,    49,    56,    92, 

94. 
Books  read  as  a  boy,  34, 

35. 
Bribe     offered     by     mine 

owners,  55,  56. 
Buried  under  mine  rock, 

29. 
Compulsory     Arbitration. 

256. 

Conciliation,  254. 
Congress,  in,  130. 
Congress,  running  for, 

121,  125-127. 
Early     contrast    between 

poverty  and  wealth.  6. 
Elected  International  Sec- 
retary-Treasurer of  the 

United   Mine   Workers, 

55,  102. 
Elected   President  of  his 

Union,  52. 
Enjoined     for     contempt, 

92. 

Evolutionist,   250. 
Farming,   52,   61-64. 
Father,  his,  7.   8,  10,  18, 

28,  30,  35.  49,  67. 
Fifteenth       Congressional 

District.   122. 
Fireman  on  railroad,  95. 
First  money,  27. 


General  Strike,  on,  247. 
Government      Ownership, 

on,  266. 
Helping     the     oppressed, 

246. 
Industrial         Commission 

Bill,   144. 

Industrial  peace,  on,  251. 
Jailed    by    mine    owners, 

51. 
Joins       Mine       Workers' 

Union,  32. 
Joint    Conferences,    helps 

to  establish,   52. 
Librarian  of  Library  So- 
ciety, 34. 
Mother,   his,   1,   3,   7,   15, 

16. 
Opposed     to    compulsory 

arbitration,   142. 
Organizes  Boys'  Debating 

Society,  36. 
Plan     to    avoid     strikes, 

259. 

Poems,  26.  49,  59. 
Policies,   240. 
Posters,  267. 
Rescuing  William  Hogan. 

47. 
Schooling,  6-8,  18,  26,  27 

31. 
Story    of    his    neighbors, 

121. 

Takes  his  seat,  134. 
Union,    half    member    of, 

49. 
Union.        Secretary        of 

Local,  49. 

Urged  for  Governor,  131. 
Vote  of  1906,   125. 
Wage  Commission,  259. 
Wilson  Day  in  Arnot,  56. 
Wilson,       Brigader      General 

John  M.,  117. 
Wilson,   President,   177. 
Wilson     Seamen's    Bill,     139, 

140. 

Worden,  B.  L..  213. 
Wright,  Carroll  D.,  117,   157. 


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